Three Yoga Poses To Help With Detox

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There are many benefits to incorporating a daily yoga practice into your life. Better sleep, greater flexibility and strength, easier breathing, and a stronger mind/body connection. Yoga can be beneficial while detoxing from anything including alcohol, helping you shift from unhelpful patterns to more helpful ones. Learning to practice mindfulness while making a major life change is empowering. Mindfulness helps make good habits stick while releasing old ones.

An asana practice refers to the physical part of yoga, connecting body, breath, and spirit. Many people, including myself, found yoga through an active asana practice. The physical practice then became a gateway to meditation and breathwork, and eventually, more conscious living, especially when it came to my drinking.

Yoga is a detoxifying practice, by increasing circulation, improving respiration and digestion. Although yoga doesn’t increase your liver’s ability to detox faster, it can help your body become more efficient at getting rid of the bad stuff.

Here are three yoga poses to help during detox.

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Malasana (Yogi Squat)

Benefits of the Pose

  • motility and waste elimination

  • circulation and blood flow in the pelvis

Malasana allows us to connect to our Root Chakra, where we nourish our body and spirit, reconnecting with what you need. This is a grounding pose connecting to the most basic needs of life, a sense of security and safety. If you are feeling disconnected, this pose strengthens your Root Chakra, increasing emotional stability and providing you with a solid foundation. To build new habits, you need a good foundation and a place to start.

How to get into the pose

Bring your legs out wider than the width of your mat, toes pointing out. Slowly bend your knees, bringing yourself down into a squat. If it’s too intense, sit onto a bolster/pillow. Avoid crouching down and lift your chest, keeping length in the back. Your core is activated. Dig your elbows into your thighs to gently push your thighs open. Hands can come to heart centre. Lift the crown of your head and breathe. Hold for up to 1 minute before releasing your seat to the ground.

 

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Supine Twists

Benefits of the Pose

  • Improved circulation

  • Increased spinal mobility

Twists are purifying, balancing, centring, and can help you find clear focus. Twists help expel toxins and improve circulation and spinal mobility. Twists can be a very beneficial pose during detox as it allows fresh blood to circulate around your organs when you release the twist.

How to get into the pose

Lie onto your back. Shift your hips slightly to one side allow your legs to come into a tabletop position before slowly letting them drop to the opposite side of your mat. You can place a pillow in between your thighs if that helps you relax further. Be open to receive the twist! It should be effortless in body and breath. Feel your inhales fold into your exhales and allow the weight of your body to completely relax into the ground. You can turn your head away from the twist if that feels good. To exit, gently hug knees to chest before bringing your feet to the mat. Reset your hips before you do the second side. Remember to take your time, there is no need to rush.

 

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Prasarita Padottanasana Yoga (Wide Legged Forward Bend Pose)

Benefits of the Pose

  • Tension release/stress relief

  • Upper body circulation

This is a wonderful pose to bath your head with freshly circulated blood. It is a grounding, calming pose. This pose stretches the back of your legs and releases your lower back, improving flexibility. It also helps to release tension from your neck and shoulders, where many of us carry it, often during times of stress.

How to get into the pose

First hinge is at the hips, spine is long. Lower your body forward. Grab your shins, ankles, feet: anywhere along your legs. You can bend your knees slightly. Allow your spine to round down and breathe. You can draw your head towards the floor, but you don’t have to. You have the option to clasp your hands beneath your back to create more of a shoulder stretch as you lengthen out your whole back body.

 

Note from Editor: Twisted Chair is a standing pose that is also great for detox and increasing circulation to your midsection. Kristen Kemp from Yoga Journal says “Energetically, it helps you wring out what you don’t need.” Perfect for a detox from the indulging of the holidays!

Takeaway

I hope these three yoga poses help you find moments of calm during a time of transition. Yoga is a way to find peace regardless of the circumstances swirling around you. It helps you focus on the present moment rather than get drawn into ‘mind noodles’ as I call them, noodling around from one thought to another! While practicing these poses, focus on your breath, making it expansive and nourishing. Most importantly, meet yourself where you are at. Detoxing from alcohol is hard but every step you take is one step closer to the person you are blossoming into.

About the author

Ariel Ng Bourbonnais is a writer, sober-yoga-teaching mama, and infertility awareness advocate. After struggling with years of infertility, Ariel realized the benefits of a regular yoga practice, writing, and finding humour during hard times. She is a published author of Through, Not Around - Stories of Infertility and Pregnancy Loss (Dundurn Press). She has been regularly practising yoga since 2014, completing 240 hours of teacher training in 2021. https://yogawithariel.cloudstudios.com/