Yoga for the Hips and Psoas

When we are in danger, the adrenal glands release adrenaline and we feel a need to flee, fight or “freeze”. The first muscle to respond to this hormonal cocktail is the psoas, a muscle extending from the ribcage to the legs. If we cannot express the energy sent by adrenaline through the body, for example because running away would be inappropriate, unprocessed stress remains within us in the form of cortisol. The psoas is influenced by breath because it contacts the diaphragm and affects our behaviour, which is why it is known as the “muscle of the soul”.

This month, we work with the hips, massage the psoas through targeted movement, relax and open to change. We move slowly and consciously, practise restorative asanas and return to the feeling of the body, emphasising work with the hips. Emotionally, the hips are the part of the body through which we ground ourselves andrelease into the eartheverything we no longer need.

Mindfulness: We practise Mindful Slow Flow Yoga, emphasising awareness of physical sensations as a guide to presence. Body awareness, or somatic meditation, is our mindful practice this month.

Yoga therapy for: 

• stretching
• restorative asanas for the hips
• releasing adrenaline held in the psoas
• yoga for relaxation
• stress relief
• mindful movement
• deep breathing
• Yoga Nidra

INTRODUCTORY TALK AND YOGA CLASS ON THE MONTH’S THEME – 75 MIN

AROUND THE PSOAS

We devote ourselves to embodied presence, how we grow within it and surrender to it. Our intention is to relax the body and resolve deeply anchored stress through slow, rhythmic movements, resetting stress through the psoas, spine and organs, while encouraging a healthy relationship and alert body awareness. Is that complicated? Not really, because everything is already here and always available. We simply return to ourselves, the body and its intelligence, where we know health and security reside. The talk explains some scientific background about the brain, why we function as we do, the difference between reactive and receptive states, and how we learn to integrate brain, body and mind into a whole that remains mindful, calm and aware through waves of challenge and emotion. After the talk, we enjoy a simple, short and sweet class of gentle movement and psoas massage. 

40 MIN

1. MOBILITY FOR LAZY DAYS

Prepare a little more space for today’s class. If you have two mats, place them together, or put a blanket beneath you for softness. We begin in a wide reclining position and slowly mobilise from the hips. Gradually, the movements include more of the body until we reach a floor dance that travels from lying on the back into “Sphinx Frog”. It is perhaps the best form of mobility for lazy days: we move the whole body while simply rolling on the floor. Relax and play, adding enough strength for the movements to remain fluid and graceful while still surrendering to momentum. After these dance-like games, we practise another targeted exercise for hip mobility and strength. It is more challenging, but soften it as needed and go only as far as available. You will see; it is not difficult.

60 MIN

2. VITALITY OF THE HIPS

Comfortable mobilisation and opening of the hips awakens the tissues, improves circulation, strengthens the deep muscles, lengthens tight ones and awakens the vibration of sensation and awareness in this part of the body, meaning Prana. We begin standing with several more active exercises for hip strength and mobility and several modified Sun Salutations through which we simply enter the rhythm of movement. In the second half, we lower to the floor and meditate within calm poses, observing physical sensations as neutral witnesses. The impersonal nature of these sensations shows us that what we feel is conditioned by the body’s position and that we need not believe thoughts that try to define what and who we are through those feelings. Can I allow myself to feel discomfort exactly as it exists in the body?  Without running away or justifying it, I simply observe: ah, discomfort or the pleasant feeling of stretching. 

MINDFUL SLOW FLOW CLASS – 40 MIN

3. FASCIA

Fascia is the layer beneath the skin that connects the whole body, surrounds organs, muscles and tissues and carries information. Today, we become aware of it and enter the subtle energetic current within through which information travels. We move consciously and slowly, noticing how one segment affects the whole. The class is meditation in motion and revitalisation of tissues deep within the body, all while lying comfortably. 

40 MIN

4. THE LAYER BENEATH THE SKIN

We continue moving with awareness of fascia and the subtle connection beneath the skin. We begin with deeper breathing and feel that breath is not contained by the body’s boundaries; the pulse of expansion and gathering is felt deep within and in the space around us. We practise unusual movements that combine directions, for example a backbend + twist + side stretch. The idea is to encourage new motor patterns and awaken threads of fascia in different ways. At the end, we relax in Cat Chasing Its Tail, a restorative asana that also combines directions. Here, we sink, breathe calmly and meditate. 

60 MIN

5. WIND OF BALANCE

The layer beneath the skin surrounding every tissue, the fascia, is where we experience the intensity of movement. Sensations of intense strength or stretching and opening travel as information and move through the body according to our actions. When we see the body as fluid and connected beneath the skin, we can compare this with wind moving from an area of higher pressure or intensity towards one of lower pressure. In today’s practice, the breath is our wind, balancing inner tension. We calibrate intensity through gentle movement and a soft attitude free from achievement. We mobilise the hips in every direction, soften the meeting point between the pelvis and lower back and awaken wave-like movement in the spine. 

40 MIN

6. HONESTY WITH FEELINGS

Opening to physical sensations includes complete honesty about what we feel. We are often accustomed to believing that we must achieve something to be good or accepted, but through yoga, we unlearn this. We learn to feel honestly where our boundaries are, which feelings awaken and which thoughts they trigger. We train this honesty by entering no deeper into asanas than is comfortable, allowing a small healthy measure of discomfort, and by refusing to force. There is nothing to achieve; we are already good enough, already here and everything is already as it should be. The most we can ever offer is our full attention in every moment, and that is what we give. Flow through today’s practice with this thought and remain within yourself, sincerely feeling what the body says and the relationship we are building with it. We continue mobilising the hips and opening the front of the legs and entrance to the groins through hip-opening asanas.

60 MIN

7. THE DOOR OF THE PSOAS

This class is the epicentre of the month’s work. Everything prepared so far revolves around it, and deep peace and stress release flow from it. We have softened fascia, become aware of fluidity and connection beneath the skin and moved the motor system in unusual directions. Today, we focus on the psoas. We first mobilise the hips generally from standing and then lower into a position with one knee on the floor, which offers many ways to enter the psoas. We repeat familiar movements from Kapyasana into a forward bend, use a targeted psoas stretch, several twists and a few more elements to prepare for Lizard. This intense asana deeply opens the door of the psoas. Practise everything slowly and gently, remaining at a boundary where peace and breath are greater than heaviness and pain. Working with the psoas rewards us with ease of being, but it is intense, making this measure essential. After the asanas, we take a long Shavasana and try to surrender everything, releasing the critic, the inner controller and every system of defence and achievement. Simply be the present moment.

40 MIN

8. I FEEL FROM WITHIN

Do you know how this works? We do not react directly to another person or external problem, but to physical sensations activated or triggered when we contact them. We remain within the body throughout the day to see what we responded to and what another person awakened within us. To have any possibility of recognising where our conditioned reaction and intention originate, attention needs to remain in the body. We mobilise the hips forwards and backwards, building upon the previous class by revisiting the psoas. This time, we add more work lengthening the whole quadriceps and some hamstring stretching. Prepare a strap and block. On the floor, we enter Vajrasana from below. If this is too intense, sit and enter from above, or extend both legs and lie on a block beneath the sacrum.

60 MIN

9. TWO FROGS

As we approach the end of the month, we raise the rhythm a little so that we can feel the muscles. It is not frightening; we simply begin with several Sun Salutations to stimulate circulation. Sun Salutations return us to rhythm and familiar, orderly movements that connect attention with physical sensation and awaken body awareness. We then lower to the floor and practise several relaxing restorative poses that open and mobilise the hips. Two Frogs meet within the same asana, one leg in one variation and the other in another. Mobilise and lengthen comfortably once more. Next time, we meet for the final class of the theme and bring everything together.

40 MIN

10. THE WHOLE

From a standing position, where we breathe and mobilise, we continue awakening through Sun Salutations. After more dynamic pulses that awaken the meeting points between pelvis and legs and pelvis and back, we hold several asanas to lengthen the psoas and surrounding area gradually. We repeat movements explored earlier in the month, so simply immerse yourself. We also open the hips through a set of exercises targeting external rotation. At the end, we lower to the floor and breathe calmly in Double Pigeon, surrendering from the pose to the earth and a long, calm Shavasana with guided relaxation. Rest and reset with the finest inner strength: breathing with love.

+ A 10-MINUTE CLASS FOR EVERY DAY

ENERGETIC FLOW

Short standing exercises that help every morning begin with ease and flow in the body. Come to standing; you do not even need a mat, and if possible, it is wonderful to stand barefoot on the earth. From standing, we unlock the pelvis a little and breathe along the spine. We then follow the breath through several slow movements that are essentially squats, performed more gradually with an intention to stretch thoroughly. We also take a forward bend that relaxes and decompresses the spine. A little movement with breath, simply to return to ourselves, the body and our body awareness..