Lifestyle Choices

Every woman has two kinds of energy, male and female. Male energy is like the sun—invigorating, stimulating, creative, and powerful. The male postures in yoga call forth this dynamic energy and release it.

Female energy is recuperative, calming, nurturing, and gentle. The female postures are restoring to body, mind, and spirit. Yoga attempts to release male and female energies and ultimately to fuse them in union—to integrate the person.

The first four postures are male. They are done standing and they revitalize you. The last four are female and calming. In order to achieve the best balance and effect, it is best to do them in the order in which Geoffrey recommends them.

Do each posture slowly and deliberately, taking note of how your body feels with every movement. Never hold a position if you feel real strain, but do expect to feel some initial discomfort as your body stretches and loosens. The discomfort will pass.

Revitalizing Stretcher

Stand with your hands at your sides, palms open, feet together so you are well balanced. As you inhale slowly, raise your arms above your head until your palms come together. Exhale, keeping the arm position and rise up on your toes. Now inhale again; be aware of the stretch in your spine. Hold your breath for a few seconds. Now exhale slowly, bringing your arms down to the starting position and coming down from your toes. Repeat this three times. This exercise is particularly good to do when you get up since it stimulates the whole system and gets you ready for the day.

Shakedown

Standing with your feet a comfortable distance apart, start the exercise by shaking your hands loosely from the wrists as vigorously as you can, then work up the arms and shoulders, shaking them too until you are shaking your whole body vigorously. Then lift up one leg at a time and shake it too. The idea is to shake throughout the whole musculature of the body and get rid of all excess tension. The whole process should take about twenty seconds. This exercise is fun to do and its invigorating effect lasts a long time afterward.

Thigh Stretcher

Standing with your hands on your hips, your heels together and toes apart in a “V” shape, inhale slowly, at the same time rising up on your toes. Exhale slowly, coming all the way down to a squatting position and keeping your back straight. Inhale and come up very slowly, pushing down on the balls of your feet. (It helps to keep your eyes fixed on something steady to balance.) With feet flat on the floor, exhale again, resting in the standing position. Repeat three times. This exercise tones the thigh muscles and the ankles, as well as improving your poise and balance.

Windmill

Stand with your feet about three feet apart, arms hanging loosely at your sides. Inhale, raising your arms to clasp your hands above your head. Exhale, bringing arms down, with hands still clasped, in a circle to one side and then right down toward the floor. Go around three times in each direction, inhaling on the upward swing, exhaling as you come down. Feel the twist in your torso at the side each time you start another circle as you exercise muscles not normally used. Finish by bending forward from the waist and letting the arms and torso hang loose, imaginingthat all the tension in your body is draining to the floor. This exerciseloosens your spine and trims your midriff.

Knee Touches

Lying on your back, inhale, bringing one knee up to your chest. Exhale and bring your forehead up to meet your knee. Return to the starting position without inhaling again until you raise the other knee to repeat the movement. Repeat the exercise until you have exercised each knee three times. This exercise is particularly good if you suffer from digestive problems.

Double Contractions

Do the preceding exercise with the same breathing pattern as before, but pulling up both knees at once and lifting your head to meet them with your forehead. Finish by rocking back and forth on your back like a rocking chair. Go through the routine six times. This loosens up the spine and the muscles deep in the back as a preparation for more advanced postures.

Tummy Twists

Lying flat on your back on the floor with your arms spread wide to each side from the shoulder, inhale, bringing knees up, feet flat on the floor. Keeping knees together, exhale, twisting to the right and lowering knees to the floor, keeping shoulders flat and head straight. Hold for ten seconds, breathing normally through the nose. Then inhale, bringing knees back up again slowly, and exhale, this time lowering them to the left. Do the exercise twice, alternating from side to side. This posture stretches and brings back blood to the intestines, improves lumbar back conditions, and promotes a strong spine, as well as tightening stomach muscles and stretching the sides of your body down to the hips.

The Corpse

Lying on your back with your arms at the sides of your body, palms facing upward, let your feet fall open and your body go completely limp. Close your eyes. Take four deep breaths through your nose, saying to yourself, “As I breathe in I take in healing energy, and as I breathe out I breathe out all the tension and all the anxiety and all the pain and negativity from my body.” Now gently direct your thought to your feet and be aware of them. Tell them to relax and free them of all their tension. Move up slowly and gently, directing your ankles to relax, then your legs, your thighs, your hips. Let them sink heavily into the floor. Then concentrate on your spine, letting each vertebra go one after another, then the neck, head, face, eyes and on through the shoulders, arms, hands, across the abdomen and chest. Become aware of the feeling of complete overall relaxation and stay in this state for thirty seconds to one minute (longer if you can). This posture is an excellent way to begin and to end a session of yoga.

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