Soothing Yourself with Supported Forward Bends

by Nina

As I discussed yesterday in Anxiety, Yoga and the Front Body, supported forward bends can be wonderfully quieting and soothing. You can use these poses to calm yourself when you’re feeling anxious or to turn inward when you’ve been over-stimulated. However, you do need to set up for them properly. By that I mean that the poses need to be completely comfortable. If they’re not completely comfortable for you, they’re going to be irritating and maybe even aggravating, which defeats the whole purpose of practicing them.

To be comfortable in these poses, you need to:

• Pick the seated position that is best for your body (crossed legs, straight legs or wide angle legs). Experiment and see which of the three poses described below are most effective for you.
• Choose the propping (bolster, pillows, stack of blankets or chair) that is truly comfortable for you. Be honest with yourself about the height you need to be comfortable, rather than imitating a photograph.

Crossed-Legs Forward Bend

If your hips are more flexible than the backs of your legs, you might prefer sitting with crossed legs (Sukasana) as in the following two photos.

Unless you are super flexible, start by sitting with crossed legs on a height, such as a folded blanket, with the bolster, stack of blankets, or chair in front of you. Then, bending from your hip joints without rounding your back, slowly fold forward. When you reach the full extension of your spine, allow your back to gently round as you come down toward the prop. (If rounding irritates your lower back, do the version with the chair and keep your back straight.)

Fold your arms, with elbows out to the sides, and stack your hands on the prop. Then rest your forehead on your hands, gently tugging your forehead skin down towards your eye. Stay for two or three minutes (or longer if it's delicious), switching the cross of your legs half way through.

Straight Legs Forward Bend

If your legs are more flexible than your hips (this is somewhat atypical but some people—like me—have this body type), you might find it easier to do the pose with straight legs (Paschimottanasana), as in the next two photos.

Unless you are super flexible, start by sitting with straight legs on a height, such as a folded blanket, with the bolster, stack of blankets on top of your legs or chair over them. Then, bending from your hip joints without rounding your back, slowly fold forward. When you reach the full extension of your spine, allow your back to gently round as you come down toward the prop. (If rounding irritates your lower back, do the version with the chair and keep your back straight.)

Fold your arms, with elbows out to the sides, and stack your hands on the prop. Then rest your forehead on your hands, gently tugging your forehead skin down towards your eye. Stay for two or three minutes (or longer if it is delicious), keeping your legs lightly active.

Wide Angle Forward Bend

People who are relatively flexible in both the hips and legs often find wide angle legs (Upavistha Konasana) the most comfortable position for a forward bend, as shown in the next two photos. Unless you are super flexible, start by sitting with wide angle legs on a height, such as a folded blanket, with the bolster, stack of blankets, or chair in front of you. Then, bending from your hip joints without rounding your back, slowly fold forward. When you reach the full extension of your spine, allow your back to gently round as you come down toward the prop. (If rounding irritates your lower back, do the version with the chair and keep your back straight.)

Fold your arms, with elbows out to the sides, and stack your hands on the prop. Then rest your forehead on your hands, gently tugging your forehead skin down towards your eye. Stay for two or three minutes (or longer if it is delicious), keeping your legs lightly active.

Sequencing

Of course, there is no reason why you can’t do more than one of these poses or all three. And by doing more than one pose, you’ll increase the quieting effects. If I were to sequence them, I do them as follows:

1. Seated Crossed Legs Forward Bend (Sukasana)
2. Wide Angle Forward Bend (Upavistha Konasana)
3. Straight Legs Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

But you can sequence these poses in any way that feels good to you. Before practicing these poses, you might like to do some Reclined Leg Stretches (see Reclined Leg Stretch Sequence) as stretching your legs and hips beforehand can make the forward bends more comfortable. And if your lower back feels irritated after the forward bends, I recommend doing Legs Up the Wall pose (Viparita Karani), with your lower back supported by a bolster (tailbone hanging just off the bolster) as a counter pose. In Viparita Karani, your lower back is in a slight backbend, which will help restore the curve to your lower back, but since the pose is overall a quieting one, it allows you to maintain the quieting effect of your practice.

Finally, some people just do not enjoy the effects of a long forward bend; they find that the poses elicit an unpleasant, heavy feeling that is kind of deadening rather than soothing. If that’s true for you, supported inverted poses (see Just In Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses) may be better options. Remember, when working with yoga for emotional wellbeing, your own reactions to the poses should be your guide.

Getting Comfortable in Forward Bends

by Nina

I have always known that seated forward bends are considered quieting poses, but it wasn't until I interviewed Shari (see Talking About Baroreceptors and Yoga) about baroreceptors that I discovered that forward bends are quieting for the same reason that inverted poses are calming: pressure on the baroreceptors causes your body to lower your blood pressure and reduce your stress hormones. No wonder three minutes in a forward bend seems to turn off the noise in my head and put me in a relaxed, almost dreamy state. But this got me curious because you're not exactly upside down in a forward bend, so I asked Baxter if he knew why forward bends had the same effect as inversions (I'm like that about yoga, I always want to know why!). Here's what he said:

Regarding the beneficial effect of seated forward folds on lowering blood pressure, I would hypothesize that the fold brings enough pressure onto the abdominal area to place pressure on the main blood vessel in the belly, the abdominal aorta. If this caused a temporary narrowing in the vessel, this could create a back pressure up to the baroreceptors in the neck and aortic arch. This would have the same effect as inversions.

By now you may be reading this and thinking, "That's fine for you to say, but I hate forward bends.  Just the thought of doing them makes me feel cranky, not relaxed." Yes, I realize that I'm one of the lucky few who is flexible enough to be comfortable in forward bends. And I do know that a large number of people, especially those with tight hamstrings, are, shall we say, quite the opposite of comfortable in forward bends. For those people, discomfort in the pose pretty much negates the soothing effects because being physically uncomfortable tends to irritate the nervous system.

But does that mean you have to miss out entirely on the blissful feeling I've just described? Definitely not! Because in today's post I'm going to present two different ways to prop your forward bends to take remove the yuck and bring on the bliss.

The first way is to place a round bolster or a very thick blanket roll behind the thigh of your straight leg or behind both legs if you are doing Paschimottanasana (as shown in the photo below). With the bolster behind your thigh, you knee or knees will be bent and supported.

Bend from your hips to come into the forward bend and then slowly round your back into a gentle curve. Baxter is someone who has very tight hamstrings and normally doesn't enjoy forward bends, but just look how comfy he looks in these photographs!

Stay in the pose at least three minutes (I've found it takes that long for the pose to work its magic). Whhen you are ready to come out of the pose, come out very slowly, rolling up to an upright position.

And if that propping doesn't work for you, I've got another trick up my sleeve. In the second version of a supported forward bend, you use a bench or chair on which to rest your arms and head. Position the chair over your straight leg (or legs), far enough away so you can keep your spine long and straight when you come into the forward bend. If the bench or chair isn't high enough for you to easily reach, add folded blankets or towels to increase the height. To come into the pose, bend from your hip joints, keeping your spine straight and long (in this version you do not round your back). Place your folded arms on the chair or bench, and rest your head on your hands. If possible, catch your forehead skin on your hands and tug it gently down toward your eyebrows.

Again, stay in the pose at least three minutes. When you are ready to come out of the pose, come out very slowly, using your hands to press yourself into an upright position.

I often teach this second version of the pose, and I'm always so pleased to see almost everyone in the class come out of the pose with a calm, relaxed expression on their faces! I'd love to hear how it feels to you!

For cautions for these forward bends (and forward bends in general), see Which Forward Bends Are Safe?