Yoga for Fall: Turn over a new leaf

The trees have put on their brightest colors and as their red leaves begin to fall, Vata takes over Pitta. The windy season is once again upon us, bringing along transformation and instability. Vata energy makes you want to go anywhere, everywhere, anytime, at all times, making you feel a little overwhelmed sometimes… The key here is to implement a sensation of steadiness and regularity in your daily life so as to balance this excessive moving energy.

Yogi lifestyle for Fall

Try to go to bed early to get your eight hours of sleep. Resting is essential to overcome the Vata’s downsides – anxiety, nervousness and stress.

Try to schedule a regular practice, preferably every day at the same time. Apply nourishing oils to prevent skin dryness and, in terms of food choices, go for warm soups and hot cooked meals, drink warm teas and infusions, privilege root vegetables and avoid raw veggies.

Yoga poses and sequences for Fall

As you may feel a little unstable, privilege grounding Pranayama exercises to better center yourself such as Sama Vritti Pranayama or four square breathing exercise. Sama Vritti Pranayama aims at evening the length of our inhalation, retention after inhalation, exhalation and retention after exhalation, producing a powerful grounding effect.

Here is how you can practice:

Sit down in Sukhasana, both hands down on your knees. Inhale in 4, hold for 4, exhale in 4, hold for 4 and start again. If you feel comfortable, you can extend the length of the breath up to your maximum and then gradually decrease back to your first 4-4-4-4 pattern before stopping and meditating on the impact of the practice.

When practicing Asana, try to privilege holding poses for at least five breaths in order to really immerse yourself deep into the pose. Try to transition with control and as slowly as possible from one pose to another to take the time to focus on the movement and feel your inner energy flowing.

At the end of the sequence, enjoy a long Savasana (corpse pose) without opening the legs too wide in order to keep the energy from flowing outside of the body.

You can privilege grounding poses stimulating your lungs and large intestine as they’re the two organs connected to the fall season, such as:

Backbends : Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-facing-dog), Ustrasana (Camel pose), Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge pose), Dhanurasana (Bow pose) and Urdhva Dhanurasana (Wheel pose) which will open your chest and release tensions in the lungs.

Inversions: Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand), Halasana (Plough pose) which will stimulate your large intestine.

Twists : Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Spinal Twist Pose) or Parivrtta Adho Mukha Virasana (Revolved Downward-facing-hero pose).

Deep stretches : Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend) or Janu Sirsasana (Head to knee pose) to be more present in the moment.

Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) are to be practiced with control, without pace, to warm up the body as the temperature slowly starts to drop.

Do not hesitate to rely on a regular Restorative yoga practice to take the time to be present in the moment as much as possible. We have a yummy Restorative Yoga Practice on the blog. Fall can be a good time to practice meditation or Yoga Nidra and corporal visualization, generating a sensation of deep relaxation. You should now have the keys to smartly adapt your practice to each of the four seasons.

And now, enough with all the tips. Let’s practice!

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