Yoga promotes a bounty of mind and body benefits, including things like strength, flexibility and stress relief… and we can do yoga without even leaving our bed.
It’s all about finding ways that works for us that is realistic and accessible to us. There are so many ways we can do one thing. Louise Hay said “there are around 150 different ways we can do the dishes”. Illustrating that there are so many different ways we can do one thing and it’s about finding a way that works for us.
This as a great way to start our day or even end our day and get in some great health benefits at the same time.
If you love laying in bed a little extra in the morning then why not do a little bit of bed yoga or if we happen to be bed ridden and the body allows, here are some poses you may be able to do with limited movement.
Follow this sequence from start to finish, or pick and choose the poses your body needs.
Hips sequence
Happy Baby
Instructions:
Lie on your back.
Bring the soles of the feet together and grip the outside of your thighs, shins or feet with your hands (if you have difficulty holding the feet directly with your hands, hold onto a belt looped over each sole.)
Benefits:
Gently stretches the inner groins and the back spine
Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and fatigue
Supine Bound Angle
Instructions:
Lie on your back with the soles of your feet touching. You can keep your arms by your side or stretch your hands above your head — whatever feels best.
Benefits:
Stretches the inner thighs, groins, and knees
Helps relieve the symptoms of stress, mild depression, menstruation and menopause
Supine Pigeon
Instructions:
Lie on your back with knees bent and thighs parallel and hip-distance apart. Cross left ankle over right thigh. Reach left arm through the space between thighs and reach right arm around the outside of the right thigh. Clasp hands below right knee and flex left foot. If your head comes off place a pillow behind head.
Benefits:
Is a great stretch for outer hips whilst releasing the low back
Supine Pigeon Twist
Instructions:
Keeping the legs in the same position as above (see supine pigeon) just without the bind. The sole of foot that is on top is going to place down softly onto the bed. So knees go in the opposite direction to the bent leg on top.
Benefits:
Releases into the inner and outer hips as well as a nice stretch for the lower back.
Child’s Pose
Instructions:
This simple, calming pose is easy to do in bed. Kneel on the mattress and allow your big toes to touch. Separate your knees as wide as your hips (or as far as is comfortable) and lie down between your thighs.
Benefits
Gently stretches the hips, thighs, and ankles
Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and fatigue
Relieves back and neck pain when done with head and torso supported
Seated Side Stretch
Instructions:
Seated upright, with your right leg extended and the sole of your left foot against the right inner thigh, open your left knee further back, widening the angle and distance between your two knees. Lift and turn your torso to face your left knee, side bend to the right over your extended right leg. Rest the back of your bottom hand on the floor inside your inner right thigh. Reach your left arm over your top ear for the right foot and pull your top shoulder back, revolving your chest open to the ceiling.
Tip: If bringing the arm overhead impacts your shoulder just keep top hand to the lower back.
Benefits:
Stretches the spine, shoulders, and hamstrings
Stimulates abdominal organs such as the liver and kidneys
Frog Pose
Instructions:
From all fours, walk your knees as far apart as they will allow comfortably, without straining. The inside knife edge of your feet should be touching the ground, knees bent to 90-degree-angles. Elongate the spine by energetically extending the crown of the head and the tailbone in opposite directions. While engaging your core, lower down to your forearms, making sure your elbows are stacked right below your shoulders. Now soften the heart and the belly and allow your hips to draw back and down.
Tips:
If this is too intense, try bringing your feet towards one another, big toes touching, the tops of the feet facing down. Make sure your gaze is straight down. We want to keep the spine elongated and of course we don’t want to hurt our necks.
Benefits:
Opens the hips while strengthening the lower back by stretching the groins and inner thigh muscles
Also creates heart space in the chest and shoulders.
About the Author
Larissa is a yoga, meditation and sound facilitator who currently hosts our Wednesday to Friday retreats. Her mission is to hold a loving and nurturing space for others to be themselves and to become comfortable in the uncomfortable, real and vulnerable.
Larissa is an advocate for not trying to recreate ourselves but to discover how beautiful we already are. She says “to meet oneself we must be willing to face the truth, our fears, our traumas, and our internal world. We must take responsibility for our lives and not blame it on others.”