Try Cancer yoga for reproductive problems, indigestion, nervous stomach, erratic emotions, menopause, menstrual cramps. Promotes divine feminine essence and calm, nurturing mother energy. Goddess power. Sensitive and intuitive.
Cancer rules the breasts, breastbone, stomach, digestive system, lower ribs, womb and pancreas.
Prana vayu : samana // Ayurvedic dosha : kapha
Meditation : anahata (heart chakra)
Cancer rules the breasts and emotional body and these types are usually more sensitive than others. Give some lovingkindness to your heart and its capacity to guide and inform you. Take a comfortable seat. Breathe deeply and evenly, breath rising from belly and lumbar spine to crown. Tune in to your heartbeat and any physical sensations in or around the heart. Visualize a green light coming in through the nose, traveling into the lungs and wrapping around the heart. With each breath, this light becomes ever more emerald, glittering as it grows to encompass the stomach, shoulders and fingertips. With each breath the heart receives a cosmic infusion of support and validation, and with every exhale a release of toxic doubt. Instead of fighting passionate responses that may arise from undivided attention to the heart, acknowledge and allow them to run their course. Release assumptions and expectations.
Nauli
The nauli breath should always be performed on an empty stomach, ideally upon first waking. This a powerful prana for digestive regulation. By forcefully drawing up and in the uddiyana bandha on empty lungs, we effectively massage the organs of the lower abdomen, thereby generating new blood flow upon release and detoxifying the stomach and intestines. Performing this prana without proper technique can lead to disorders. Keeping that in mind, I would like to humbly refer any curious kitties to live lessons with your own yoga instructor. This breath is really best demonstrated in person. Very few practitioners are able to actually create a “wave” in the abdomen as part of the breath. As always I encourage you to experiment. For those yogis who are especially thin, this breath may be painful at first - be gentle and compassionate. Try nauli in both a seated position and with utkata konasana (goddess) in the lower body, hands resting on inner thights. After 5-10 rounds, return to a normal breath and sit quietly.
- chandra namaskar (moon salutation) - there are many variations
- crescent moon warrior
- utkata konasana (goddess pose)
- ardha chandrasana (half moon pose)
- balasana (child’s pose)
ardha chandrasana variation