Travel yoga

I went to London yesterday - that's why no post from me - I know you were all soooo excited. I tried to write something on the train, but found it impossible.

It always shocks me - the amount of people on tube, train - everytime I go to London. But what really gets to me is the fact that hardly anybody is smiling on public transport. I wonder why that is - is it because they know they have to waste so much time of their days just travelling from A to B or is it because doing it everyday just totally gets to you?

That's why this blog is for all of you who travel everyday on tube, train and found it boring (I know you have those free papers to read through - but oh well - anything interesting in?). You can use this time for your own practise - there are few exercises that work very well - one is breathwork and the other is kundalini work out.

Becoming aware of your breath is meditation in itself, but try to slow down your breath, breathing through your tummy, deeper and deeper (I advice you to be seated first time you play with your breath - you can become lightheaded). Put gentle smile on your face - and you might find out that not only your journey was a bit quicker today, but that you actually did something for yourself on the way. If you have a chance to lock your fingers into some kind of mudra - that's even better.

"Kundalini work out" is basically working on the energy level - gathering energy and opening up chakras - in this case it's the first and second chakra we want to work on. This exercise is safe, but again as with any exercise watch your body and stop if you see any signs of discomfort. Now obviously as you know our energy centres - chakras are inside our body so to get to work with them we need to use muscles that are surrounding them - in case of second chakra is quite easy - pulling your stomach in (best practised with breath - on breath out you pull your stomach in). When it comes to first chakra - it's a bit more complicated due to its location - but again - worth trying. Calling this exercise "tightening anus" would probably put you all off even before you start reading this post, but that's exactly what it is. Tightening the muscles of your buttocks and inside.

Now both this practises are very easily done on public transport - they don't require any extra space and if you skip your hissing breath nobody will notice. They are very powerful though so I advice you to start slowly and build for longer period of time. They also generate and create heat inside your body as more and more energy is generated so be prepared for that. And of course unless you don't need to stay up late it's better to practise them in the morning to give you energy during the day.

Enjoy. Oh and don't forget the important bit - smile so that next time I go to London I can see who read my post. :)