“Tis the season to be jolly,” a common line from a holiday song that will surely remind you to make your Christmas joyful. At this time of year, festive food is widely anticipated, and digestive and bloating issues are not uncommon. Hence, you do not need to buy antacids because yoga can be the answer to your tummy problems.
Below are seven yoga poses that can help your digestion, massage your abdominal organs, stimulate metabolism, and increase blood circulation to keep things rolling so you can push through the Christmas season feeling your best.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a great practice that has been used to integrate the mind and body for good health for thousands of years. It also has a spiritual component for many people.
It involves exercise, meditation, and breathing techniques to improve mental and physical well-being. There are many different types of yoga, as well as several disciplines within the practice. Yoga can help you build endurance, strength, tranquility, flexibility, and overall well-being.
How Yoga May Help Digestion?
When our bodies are at rest, the parasympathetic nervous system is in charge of digestion, excretion, salivation, and increased intestine and gland activity. The first step to soothing our digestion during these times is to recognize these feelings and how they are causing our bodies to react. We can adopt procedures to counteract their harmful impacts once we’re aware that they’re occurring.
Yoga can be really good in regards to taking care of our digestive systems. It teaches us to practice calm breathing through a series of postures, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, that aids digestion. How you breathe might reveal a lot about which part of the neurological system you’re activating. The most important thing is to move and act in a way that relieves and soothes you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, the greatest thing you can do is to sit up or lie down and make yourself as comfortable as possible.
5 Yoga Poses for Digesting Your Holiday Meals
Mornings are ideal for this type of yoga since it massages and stimulates the digestive organs. Most of the following postures may be done from bed, making it simple to incorporate this regimen before leaving the comfort of your duvet.
Remember to keep your breathing in check and move at a comfortable pace. Continue reading to learn 5 yoga poses that are helpful for digestion.
Cat and Cow Pose
Breathing deeply while you alternately compress and extend the intestines helps stimulate your organs, providing fresh blood to the epithelial cells that are responsible for healthy gut function.
- Start on your mat by getting down on all fours.
- Maintain a hip-width distance between your knees and shins by placing your wrists precisely beneath your shoulders and aligning your knees with your hips.
- Lower your tummy to the mat, roll your shoulders back and elevate your chin and chest to the sky in Cow position.
- To achieve Cat pose, exhale and curve your spine to the ceiling, slicing your belly in toward your spine and staring in at your navel.
- Return to Cow pose with an inhale, then exhale and return to Cat pose.
- Repeat.
Extended Puppy Pose (Uttana Shishosana)
After a great meal, a puppy pose is extremely helpful for expanding the stomach and relieving cramps. It’s also a great shoulder blade tension reliever, which is ideal for dealing with rowdy visitors.
- While on all fours, stretch your arms forward in front of you and rest your chest downwards.
- Keep holding for as long as you like. This is excellent for reducing discomfort, particularly if you’re bloated or too full.
Bow Pose (Dhanurasana)
Bow Pose resembles an archer’s bow in appearance. It extends your back and is said to help with digestion, constipation, and menstrual cramps, according to proponents.
- Begin by resting on your stomach with your knees bent.
- Grab the ankles with your arms reaching back.
- Allow your feet to head backward, as if stretching the front of your shoulders, and your chest to rise off the floor instead of raising up.
- While holding this pose, gently sway your body back and forth with your breath.
- Lifting and dropping the navel off the floor is another move you may do while you’re here.
- Repeat as many times as you’d like.
Marichi’s Pose (Marichyasana)
The ‘wringing’ with twists motion promotes the removal of trapped intestinal toxins and relieves bloating and constipation discomfort.
- On an inhale, come to a sitting position with any leg variation and pull yourself tall.
- As you exhale, gently twist to one side.
- Perform the procedure on the opposite side, be careful not to twist too much.
If you prefer twists laying down, just simply cross one leg over to the opposite side of the body and turn your face to the opposite side to obtain a full spinal twist.
Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)
A standing forward bend might boost your energy levels. In order to consume and digest food, our bodies expend extra energy. Your body may not be able to utilize as much energy as it normally does when you eat something you are intolerant to. As a result, we become fatigued and sluggish.
- Start in Mountain Pose (Tadasana). Take a breath in as you draw your arms overhead for an Upward Salute (Urdhva Hastasana)
- Allow the top half of your body to hang by folding forward from the waist with your feet more or less hip-width apart and soft knees. The digestive organs will be massaged, and blood supply to the brain will be increased, resulting in increased energy.
