Samastitihi for pregnant women

>Stand at the front of your mat with your feet hip width apart and parallel. Depending on how far along in your pregnancy you may feel comfortable to have your feet closer together. It is very important that your feet be parallel whichever width you choose to place them. Feet to the front of the mat.

Take the time to start to notice and witness your breath and close your eyes. Slowly, notice your breath moving in and out of your body, through the nose. Slowly, slowly.

Take your awareness to your feet and gently ground through your heels, feeling the weight of your body through your heels. Now slightly take the weight to the front of your feet, the balls of your feet. Back and forth, heels and balls of the feet. After doing this 5 times find a place of balance where your whole weight is evenly distributed throughout your feet. Good.

Lift the energy up your legs, drawing it up through the arches of both feet. Awakening the quadriceps and activating them will lift your knee caps and strengthen and protect your legs. Finding a safe and grounded standing position is the first place to be in your yoga practice, pregnant or not.

Now move your awareness to your sitting bones and gently point them down to the ground. This will even out the sway in your back that is brought on by making and holding a baby within your body. Gently take the energy of your sitting bones to the ground, this will also even out your pelvic area and protect the lower back and spine.

Focus your awareness on the base of your spine and infuse it with a golden light. Bring this golden light up through each and every vertebrae, lengthening the space between each bone. Visualise that you are making the spaces bigger between each bone, lifting and separating. This is fantastic for a pregnant women as our spine needs all the protection it can get at this time. We are fitting so much into our body that our spine gets pushed out of shape and can cause discomfort. Take this golden light all the way up the spine, neck becomes long like a swan. Golden light leaves through the crown of the head and takes the top of the head with it towards the ceiling, gently. As if we are growing taller with each breath.

Bring your shoulders up toward your ears, roll them back and then bring them down. This should leave a lot of room around your neck and ears and this is what we want. By bringing your shoulders back and down you are also opening through your chest and no more hunching for us in this posture.

Take your fingertips towards the floor.

Now your body is placed as it needs to be for the first of the moving asanas (postures) for your pregnant yoga practice.

For the moment begin to focus on your breath. You are at such a marvelous time in your life it is a good yoga practice to stand here for a few minutes, your body awakened and listen to your breath. It is your breath that will take you through a successful labour and all that entails so connect with it now.

Imagine your breath begins at the base of your belly, below the baby. As you inhale bring it up around the whole of your baby and lift it up the torso to the crown of your head. Exhale it back down to the base of your belly and around the baby again. Begin to feel as though you are warming your torso with your breath and your breath is like a wonderful hug and cuddle for your baby. Oxygen is plentiful when we breathe with awareness and your baby will welcome this.

Mothers are in touch with their baby from day one. Your breath will feel very powerful to your unborn child. Stand here for quite a few minutes before you do anything else and connect with your child.

Samastitihi may seem a very simple posture but during pregnancy it is a very powerful and magical way to start a practice. Your baby is aware of everything you do and now is the time to start to connect. One breath in and one breath out is a very gentle way to do this.

Enjoy