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yoga & spirit Let yoga prolong your vacation vibe F asten your seatbelts; we're making our final descent… back into reality. Post-vacation blues is a familiar feeling among travelers—coming home and trying desperately to hold onto the relaxed vacation high. Jumping back into your routine with the pressure of emails, work and household chores makes that By Beth Shaw channels at the back of the throat—but the sense is of inhaling through a hole in the throat. The diaphragm controls the length and speed of the breath. Unlike normal shallow breathing, diaphragmatic breathing flexes your diaphragm and not your ribs. When practicing ujjayi breath, you should be able to first feel your lower belly photos: Claudio Micco EASING THE PAIN OF RE-ENTRY POST-VACATION YOGA ASANAS ~SAVASANA~ Lie on your back, arms at your side, and rest difficult, but you can bring the calm home with yoga breathing techniques. "Ocean breath," an ideal component to relaxing the mind, is like putting a conch shell to your ear, closing your eyes and reminiscing about toes dipped in the water and beach breezes ~CHILD'S POSE~ From all fours, sink your hips back toward your heels and lower your body toward your thighs, bringing your arms alongside your body. ~COBRA~ From your belly, rest your hands lightly on the floor next to your chest. Use your back to lift your chest up and forward. Draw shoulders back and down. ~BRIDGE~ Lie on your back, palms down. Slide your shoulders away from your ears. Bring the soles of your feet to the floor, hip-width apart. Press through your feet to lift your hips. dancing in your hair. It is yoga's ujjayi pranayama breathing method of inhalations and exhalations. The ocean sound is created by moving air from the back of the nasal cavity and throat along the airway, which creates a rushing sound reminiscent of the rolling tide. You inhale through your nose, stimulating the nadis—energy ~BUTTERFLY~ Keeping your spine long, bend your knees out to the sides and draw the soles of your feet together. Bring your heels in toward your body, a foot's distance away from your pelvis, using the muscles on the outside of your hips to draw your knees toward the floor. ~KNEES TO CHEST~ From a supine position, draw your knees to your chest, holding your legs behind your knees. For a gentle back massage, slowly rock back and forth. —Beth Shaw is the founder of YogaFit, the world's largest yoga fitness education school, based in Southern California. 18 wholelifetimesmagazine.com FINAL REDESIGN WLT-5-27-11pm.indd 18 5/28/13 11:11 AM