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So in this clip we'll look at shoulder stand, which is one of the royalty poses, if you
will, in yoga, the raja asanas. It's great for the thyroid and parathyroid glands. So
we'll get upside down, there will be a bit of pressure on the throat. So it's good for
hormonal shift, which can be an issue when you go from the dreary, short days and dark
cold weather of winter into the light of spring. So if you need a little boost, this will help.
Additionally, the organs get totally reversed, so the ones that normally sit on top are on
the bottom. So it's great for blood flow, it's great for lymph, which is a good way
to boost your immune system, avoiding that spring cold if you can, and also helping to
cleanse the blood. You'll want two yoga blankets, maybe three or four, depending if you have
cervical, neck, spine issues or not. A block is helpful for your entrance and then a yoga
strap about the width of your collar bones. So to get ready for the shoulder stand it's
important to make sure that the edge of the blankets are nice and even, nice and smooth.
You want to pay great attention to detail with this setup. You'll use the block as your
perch to enter the pose. So with the back of the pelvis on the block, lying back onto
your two or three or four blankets, you want to check that the top of the shoulders lines
up with the edge of the blankets. Tight shoulders can be an obstacle here, so the belt, in your
collar bone width loop, will help. So you can have one hand on the belt. You simply
curl your knees to your forehead and then you'll insert the arms into your belt loop,
above the elbows if you can. Tuck the shoulders under, hands at the back, and take the legs
up. If you feel tightness in the back of the neck you can lift the chin, shortening the
back of the neck a little bit and then drawing the chin back down into the throat. It's nice
if you can get totally vertical. It may not happen for several tries or months or years.
So you can just keep hips in your hand, and be a little less vertical, also very therapeutic.
You lose the compression in your thyroid, but you still get the benefits of the inversion.
It's important to not move the head dramatically in this pose because the neck is vulnerable.
Try to breathe smooth and relax.
To exit you lower the hips down, you come to sit on the block, remove the belt, you
scooch off the end of the blanket, let the knees come together and, once again, just
relax.