The cold days have arrived. Winter’s here and that means that it’ll be freezing for the next couple of months.
This depends where you live, of course.
Anyway, this article will be here for a while, so if you are from down under, you can bookmark this page and come back in July or August!
In this article, I’d like to talk a bit about warming yourself up by doing yoga. You might be aware of it already, but there are certain types of yoga to get you warmed up!
In this sequence I’ll be showing you a nice Vinyasa yoga sequence.
It’s going to be quite easy, so no crazy things just yet. You know, when you’re waking up in the morning you just don’t want to start with a headstand, do you?
Without further ado, let’s have a look at the sequence down below! Enjoy! And make sure that you scroll down after the yoga sequence to ready why it’s good to warm up your body during the winter.
Free Vinyasa Yoga Class To Warm Up Your Body
Why Warm Up Your Body During The Winter?
Warming Up Anatomically
Jocks already know this, but one of the main reasons you have to warm up your body is to prevent injury and fractures.
And now you might say that this isn’t necessary for you as you might not do any sports. However, warming up before you step out the door is always good. Especially if you are living in an area that gets affected by the cold.
Your muscles and every part of your body will thank you.
Not just this, but it’s also scientifically proven that warming up and exercising will make you happy. Literally, by doing sports, or by warming up your body, you’ll be releasing endorphins.
These endorphins are neurotransmitters and are helpful when it comes down to transmitting your loveliest feelings toward your whole nervous system!
So, one more reason to stay warm during the winter.
Warming Up Energetically
Now we’ll be having a closer look at why it’s good to warm up your body during winter in a more spiritual way.
Let’s have a little chat about TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine. It’s been around for many thousands of years and a lot of people still swear by it.
They basically are known because of the concepts of Yin and Yang. I’m not going to talk too much about these two. I’ve talked a little about it in this article, so you can have a look if you’d like to know more.
Anyway, within TCM winter is looked upon as a very Yin type of season. You can also see this in nature. Trees have shed their leaves and are going into their hibernation state, just like a lot of animals.
If we would still be animals, we’d probably migrate or go into hibernation ourselves. Or at least retreat ourselves a little more.
Unfortunately, we can’t do that, and we’d have to live with this yin energy that is dominating.
But this also means that yang energy is deficient. This might result in a couple of things. Like skin problems and headaches. You can find out more about this in this article.
So, it’s always good to bring a balance within your life.
Meaning that you have to find something that will bring you some yang energy. And oh my, what can we do?! Well, you’ve got this yoga sequence to start already.
Whenever we are working with the muscles, we are bringing in yang energy in our lives.
Therefore, during the winter it’s actually really good to do some Vinyasa or other yang-based yoga exercises. This because it’s going to harmonize you and make sure you’re not prone to catch those winter diseases.
Getting Warm By Food
When you’ve read the part of Yin and Yang, you might also be aware that you don’t really need to do exercise to balance your body.
Food can also be a great help to get you warmed up!
Of course, it can never hurt you to do a bit of exercise. But if you don’t have a lot of time and you need to skip on something, it’s better to skip on exercise than to skip on food.
But still, I think it’s always best to do both of them.
In this part, we’ll be focusing on a bit of food. You can do a lot with food if you weren’t aware of this just yet. Sometimes it’s taking a good look at your diet to see why you have certain symptoms.
And then changing it might be the best thing that could’ve happened to you!
Now, as we’ve said before, we want to balance our yang energy in the winter. This specifically when you have to endure the cold for many hours a day.
There are a couple of easy things you can eat to harmonize the energy in your body.
You can easily drink tea! The best teas to drink is ginger tea or any spiced tea basically, peppermint is also a nice one if you have digestive issues. Golden milk might also be a great substitute for hot chocolate milk!
And considering vegetables. A lot of the winter vegetables are actually already Yang. Like the winter greens are great for you, as well as squash and cabbage.
Make a nice soup with some sage and rosemary. The heat of the soup itself is already yang-energy, but combining it makes it even more warming.
Just be careful that you don’t just eat yang foods to make the pendulum sway all the way to the other side. Also, eat what you enjoy every once in a while.
And then there are things you’d rather avoid of course. Yin foods can better be eaten a little bit less than usual. White sugars are absolutely not good to take, they are really yin and can tilt the balance all the way to the other side again.
I know it’s quite hard, especially with the Holidays that are going on. But before and after Christmas I know you’d be able to rock that yang diet.
And to finish off, if you’d like to hear more about this subject or get a diet specifically for you, it might be good to search in your area for someone who knows a lot about TCM. Make sure it’s a licensed person as you can also do a lot wrong with misinformation!
