8/22/23

Yoga for Cooling Off and Chilling Out

I designed this yoga practice to cool you off in the heat of summer, or anytime you need chilling out and downregulating. It features one of yoga’s greatest strengths: how targeted, seasonal practices including movement, chanting, and breathwork can support the harmonization of our inner and outer worlds. We begin with an elemental chant, offering salutations to the essence of cool, flowing water to remove stuckness:

ja̱lāya̱ nama̍ḥ |
ja̱lāya̱ svāhā ̎ |
oṁ namo̍ ja̱lāya̍ |
oṁ ||

Then we practice gentle supine and seated poses including śavāsana (corpse pose), supta baddhakonāsana (supine bound angle pose), sālamba paścimottanāsana (supported seated forward fold), januśirṣāsana (head-to-knee pose), setu bandha sarvāṅgāsana (supported bridge pose), and jaṭhara parivarttanāsana (supine spinal twist).

We end with a cooling prāṇāyāma (breathwork) practice, śītalī or śītkalī breath.

Recommended props:
(1) yoga mat or a cold floor to lie on
(1-2) yoga blocks
(1-2) folded blankets or towels
(1) strap or belt