Yoga Exercise for Everyday Practice

Simple Yoga

Last month we practiced the unique Kundalini Yoga exercise, Eagle Pose, to help us work on our Aura and Magnetic Field.  Eagle pose is part of the Morning Wake-up Series, which is a good set for everyday practice.  There is another excellent simple yoga exercise which is recommended for everyday practice and for the month of December that will be the pose for us to practice together.  This exercise, unlike Eagle Pose, is common to all forms of yoga and is a fundamental part of all basic yoga practices.  It is the Cat-Cow yoga exercise. 

Although Cat Cow is a really simple yoga exercise, it is very very good for you.  Just the basic exercise is full of great benefits, and in addition, there are some wonderful variations to this technique, which allow you to work on some very unique aspects of yourself.  Below, I give a brief overview of this technique, but for all the details on this exercise please refer to the following 2 articles.

Kundalini Yoga Exercise for Emotional Health - Cat-Cow

Kundalini Yoga Exercise for Overcoming Deep Seated Fears

This yoga pose is all about emotional balance, overcoming fear, helping your sore back and working on your digestive system.  For those interested,  the previous yoga poses for the month were the following four:

August:        Learn Yoga | Nauk Asana for the Month (Abs)

September:  Yoga Pose for Thighs - Frog Pose (Thighs/Butt)

October:      Important Hatha Yoga Posture for Healing - Forward Bend (Thighs/Buttocks)

November:   Yoga to Work on Your Aura

Before jumping ahead to Cat-Cow, let me give you a quick summary of what the yoga challenge of the month is and how it works.  Essentially, the idea is for us all to include a particular exercise into our yoga practice and then to report back our thoughts and progress with that pose throughout the month.  The goal is to learn a great technique together, and experience and enjoy the benefits of that exercise. 

Below I give you some practice tips and variations for Cat-Cow pose, to help you enhance the usefulness of this simple technique.

Simple Cat Cow Exercise Variations and Practice Tips:

• This is a pose which even Beginner’s can start with for 1 minute or more.  Do it early in your yoga set, as it a great warm-up exercise.

• Eyes Variation:  As you come into Cat pose look up towards the ceiling and hold briefly.  This is good for your vision and will help give you sparkly eyes.

• Hold Variation: Instead of moving between Cat pose and Cow pose, you can come into each pose and hold for a period of time.  While in that posture, do long deep breathing.

• Rhythm Variation:  As is common with Kundalini Yoga exercise, once you warm up sufficiently and have developed your capacity, you can do Cat Cow at a vigorous pace.  This really puts contracting and expanding pressure on your entire spine and digestive organs, and helps revitalize and rejuvenate them.  It is a like a good internal massage.

• Breath Variation:  The advanced form I described in the Yoga Exercise to Fight Deep Seated Fears article above, is an excellent exercise for building your nervous system and dissolving psychological fear.  As you hold your breath out, while in Cat Pose, and pump your stomach, be sure to not over do it or over strain.  Over time you will be able to hold longer, pump harder and go further.

Simple Cat-Cow Exercise - Cat Pose 

Simple Cat-Cow Exercise - Cow Pose