| If you are unwell, either ill with a cold, flu etc or just plain drained, try gentle restorative asanas at home, this way, you are easing your body into recovery.......there are many stretches for recovery....listen to your body....start with just reclining asana, such as viparita karani, or reclined cobblers pose. cover with a blanket....and feel your breath...
I practise when I have a cold....it helps my recovery, but everyone is different, such is Yoga - an individual practice..... |
| Original Question: have a pretty bad cold, but am desperate to go to my yoga class. I had a foot injury that has kept me away and I am now over that...I probably won't go, though, because my sniffling and coughing would be a terrible distraction and bad exposure for fellow students and teacher. Anybody have thoughts?
Answer: Dear Elaine, I am not much worried about your bothering others with your cold. I am more concerned with yourself. Note, when you have Cold, many things will happen, but the two minimum I am mentioning. Firstly, when you are having cold, means you have less energy to do other things as your body is throwing junk through the mucus. So, you should not do much exercise. Exercise warms you up and reduces the feeling of cold, which is a BAD practice. Neither you should take ginger teas, and other herbs, nor take hot showers or saunas. They are all draining on energy and give good feeling at the cost of removing your stored energey, Prana.
Secondly, when you have a cold, definitely your breathing is not smooth. And, smooth breathing where slow, Ujjayi or whatever, is most important in Yoga. So, if you do Yoga with cold it would be useless.
Now, what you need to do is: Find, whether the cold is really a lot, if it is take rest. If the cold is frequent, find the cause of cold, such as Bad weather, Bad water, infected milk, pesticides in the food, etc. Then get rid of cold problem first.
If you still want to do little bit of Yoga on the side, with little bit benefits, go ahead.
I wish you luck with Coldless condition.
neel kulkarni www.authenticyoga.org |
Practice with a head cold?
