Table of Contents
With the sun shining more brightly and the haze clearing up, winter is gradually evaporating away, bidding farewell to this year. Soon, it will be time to put away the heavy quilts and fleece jackets, shake off the winter laze, and get ready for an energetic beginning filled with sunshine.
With summer around the corner, it’s time to stir up some stagnant habits we accumulated in the slow and lazy winter days and recharge our bodies with energy to greet the lively summertime.
A Daily Yoga Routine For Summertime
What is the first thing that comes to your mind as the seasons begin to transition? Let us guess… Your daily yoga routine, isn’t it? Transitioning to yoga asanas, which feels more refreshing and calm. Even if it’s not, making one is a great idea!
You might be thinking that with several summer preparations pending, let alone even consider creating a new daily yoga routine.
However, upgrading to a new yoga schedule is as significant as your gigantic tasks of cleaning out the winter dust, repacking the heavy winter clothing, and setting yourself and your home up for a cool summer. A personalized yoga routine for the summer, with yoga asanas and meditation practices to keep your body cool during the summer heat, will make your hot summer days enjoyable and refreshing.
Yoga Practices For Refreshing Summers
As days become warmer, you can take a break from your activities and enjoy these yoga asanas and meditation practices to cool down and find relaxation and refreshment from the summer heat.
1. Vrikshasana (The Tree Pose)
This grounding pose will root you down, building a connection with the Earth, seeping in its coolness through your feet as you find your balance and focus in this yoga asana.
How To Do
- Relaxing your arms in Tadasana, slowly bring your right knee to meet the root of your left thigh while keeping the soles of your feet firm.
- With a deep breath, reach your arms overhead and bring your palms together.
- Keep breathing deep as you find your balance and focus, and maintain the posture for a few minutes before switching to another leg.
If you want to learn the steps and benefits of the tree pose more comprehensively, check out our detailed blog on ‘Vrikshasana‘.
2. Uttanasana or Standing Forward Bend
This incredible yoga asana stimulates blood flow and calms the mind, aiding relaxation. As you lean forward in this pose, you will feel a sense of ease and relief, yearning to hang on to it for as long as possible. As it alleviates your back pain, massages your internal organs, and pacifies any warmth within your body, you will feel your nerves cooling down.
How To Do
- From the mountain pose, exhale and bend forward on your hips, touching your feet to your ankles, feet, or ground while keeping your spine straight and your legs bent generously.
- Feel the stretch in your lower back and spine as you hold the pose for a few breaths.
Uttanasana is associated with the Suryanamaskar, a brilliant practice that will blow newfound energy into your bones to dust off the winter slack. Learn more about it in our blog, ‘Suryanamaskar – 12 Steps To Rising Like The Sun.’
3. Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Cobbler’s Pose)
The reclined goddess pose is a restorative hip opening posture known for its soothing qualities of relaxing the nerves and reducing high blood pressure. It opens the heart, stretches the thigh, back, and pelvic muscles, and improves blood circulation, thus quelling any pain and tension in the body from the inside out.
How To Do
- Lie flat on your back with legs stretched out in front. Bring the soles of your feet together to touch and the knees laid in opposite directions.
- Bring your hands on your belly or at your sides.
- Breathe deep, relax and feel the stretch massaging your hips, back and thighs.
4. Shavasana (Corpse Pose)
Who wouldn’t know about this pose? Shavasana is the posture we all eagerly learn first as a beginner. This yoga asana isn’t just easy to perform but is one of the most relaxing poses in yoga. It has immense therapeutic qualities and is essential to be performed at the end of every yoga sequence to integrate and conclude our practice.
How To Do
- Lie down on your back with your arms at your sides and legs outstretched.
- Close your eyes and breathe deep as you relax each part of your body one by one and feel your nerves slowly calming down and your whole body seeping into the Earth.
5. Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)
As a cobra, you lift in grace as you open your chest and throat. Reaching behind through your crown as far as you can, this yoga asana induces tranquility within you as you rise like a king. It improves the spine’s flexibility, enhances digestive functioning and blood circulation, and quietens the mental clutter.
How To Do
- Lie down on your belly with your toes pointing outward and forehead touching the ground.
- Align your palms with the shoulders.
- Inhale in and rise up, lifting your crown and chest upwards and your spine arched backward.
- Continue breathing as you stay in this position. Then, with an exhale, slowly lower down.
6. Anjaneyasana (Lower Lunge)
This pose represents Lord Hanuman, a mythological God in the Hindu religion. He is symbolized as an embodiment of strength and energy. This yoga asana perfectly portrays his personality and carries the symbolic virtues in its benefits. It builds one into a more stronger, resilient person. The pose improves concentration, balance, and posture, builds core strength, stimulates the reproductive and digestive organs, and enhances the flexibility of hip muscles and the spine.
How To Do
- From the mountain pose, stretch your left leg back and lower the left knee as you bend your right knee in front.
- Stretch your arms overhead and bring your palms together. Arch your spine backward and go deep into the stretch as you reach your palms further behind.
- Breathe deep into the posture.
To balance out your schedule with a power pose among the other calming poses, adding Anjaneyasana to your daily yoga routine will invite immense strength and energy that will stir you up for vigorous summer activities.
7. Pranayama Yoga
Every yoga ritual feels incomplete and unfulfilling without adding a layer of breath to it. The breath is the fuel of our life and so of our movements on the yoga mat. Pranayama, also called breathwork, is a controlled breathing technique and involves several types, such as Anulom Vilom, Ujjayi Pranayama, Kapalbhati, Nadi Shodhan, Surya Bhedan Pranayama and so on. You can choose any of them to add to your daily yoga routine. Here is a process of one common type of Pranayama Yoga – Anulom Vilom.
How To Do
- Sit in a comfortable position with a straightened spine. Relax your body entirely and take a cycle of breath in and out.
- Now, put your right thumb on the right nostril and the right ring finger on the left nostril while keeping the index and middle finger curled in your palm, forming the Vishnu mudra.
- Close your right nostril with the thumb and take a deep inhale with the left nostril.
- Then close your left nostril and open your right nostril and slowly exhale out.
- Repeat the same process, this time inhaling with the right and exhaling with the left. Continue it for several rounds.
- Keep in mind to begin the pranayama session with an inhale from the left nostril and end with an exhale from the left nostril.
Anulom Vilom serves several benefits, such as improved eyes, skin, respiratory and cardiovascular health.
We offer a 7-Day Pranayama Yoga Retreat In Kerala, providing the best guidance and a mesmerizing yoga experience in the lush green ambiance of Kerala. It covers the practice of the various techniques of Pranayama guided by expert trainers, making you lose in a seamless breath flow and even helping you master control over your breath! Want to dive in? Think No More And Join Us Now!
8. Meditation Practice
A portal to mindfulness, returning to the breath, becoming conscious, and bringing awareness, Meditation serves many purposes, but they all point towards one single thing, and that is to find peace and balance within. Just one minute in, and you already begin to feel the serenity homing within you as you sit in quietness with your breath. You sense your focus becoming stable, your mind clearer, and your tension dissolving.
Every being needs some time and space to make sense of the world around them. To hush the outward and inward noise for a moment and connect with one’s soul.
Meditation can provide that ideal headspace. Hence, adding a few minutes of meditation practice to your daily yoga routine is worth it to keep you cool at all times.
How To Do
- Firstly, decide how much time you want to meditate.
- Now, take a comfortable seat of your choice. It can be Sukhasana, Vajrasana, Balasana, or Shavasana. Ensure it is the one you can hold for the amount of time you set.
- As you get situated, begin to breathe naturally, bringing awareness to the flow of your breath.
- Notice any tense areas and continue to soften them with each inhale, gradually relaxing your entire body into stillness.
- You will notice your mind wandering on several thoughts. Allow your mind to drift without judging or disrupting the thought flow.
- Feel a sense of serenity enwrapping you all around.
- As you near the end of your meditation practice, bring your focus back to your breath. Take a deep inhale and slowly fold your eyes open.
Ever wondered having meditation as a part of your lifestyle? Or even better, meditation being your lifestyle? At Rishikul Yogshala, we provide a Yoga and Meditation Teacher Training Course in Kerala, a perfect environment to carve you into a Yoga Teacher everyone admires. Excuse yourself no more to take a short minute break and just delve into your headspace. Join Us And Bring Your Dreams To Reality!
Winding Up
In yoga, you learn to listen to your body. Here, one size fits all doesn’t apply, but then that is yoga’s beauty. You choose your next move and decide what feels best to you on different days. Some days, you would want to sweat it away, and sometimes, you would lean towards a yin flow.
This guide to 8 yoga practices best suited for summertime is perfect to prepare you for the upcoming summer, leaving you feeling light, cool, and relaxed. Nonetheless, feel free to bring your own unique variations, techniques, and yoga asanas to upgrade your yoga lifestyle this summer.
If you are considering taking a good few days to reset and unwind, why not mind a yoga retreat? We at RishikulYogashala provide the best environment and guidance from the finest yoga experts to make your retreat a pleasant and memorable journey. Discover Our Yoga Retreat Program In Kerala Now And Dive Into An Enchanting Journey That Awaits You.
