This Yoga Flow Will Balance Your Blood Sugar (Yes, Seriously)
Stress and anxiety may cause changes in your body that affect how you regulate emotions, your eating and sleeping habits, and create an imbalance in your gut microbiome—all of which can result in an imbalance in your blood sugar. A blood sugar imbalance may lead to diabetes, pre-diabetes, PCOS or metabolic syndrome. In other words, balanced blood sugar is what we want.
Because these imbalances are something we all deal with from time to time, I've created a deeply relaxing yoga flow that will allow you to release your emotional and physical stress. Trust me—you'll feel more at ease in no time.
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Child’s Pose
Child’s Pose is potentially the best pose for relaxation and stress reduction. Any time you feel stressed, you can drop into this pose for a few minutes and feel an almost instantaneous release.
How to:
- Sit on the floor with your knees wide and your toes touching.
- Lower your belly between your thighs and rest your forehead on the floor.
- Extend your arms, facing your palms down and lengthen from your hips through your fingertips.
- Breathe gently in this pose anywhere for one to five minutes.
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Bow Pose
Bow pose opens up your front body, releasing tension throughout your chest and shoulders (hello, computer slump). This pose will also stimulate your digestion, helping to balance your gut microbiome.
How to:
- Start lying flat on your stomach.
- Reach back with your hands and grab the outsides of your ankles.
- Gently kick them away from your body. Your chest will lift off the ground like the bow of a bow and arrow.
- Breathe. Hold this pose for 30 to 60 seconds.
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Pigeon
Pigeon pose is a simple yet effective way to stretch your hips and loosen all of the emotional tension that has built up in your body throughout the day.
How to:
- Starting in Downward Facing Dog, bring your right knee forward and place it in line with your right hand.
- Your shin should be parallel with the front of your mat.
- Extend your left leg back and rest your knee and the top of your foot on the ground.
- Square your hips and fold forward, resting your forehead on your hands.
- Hold this luscious pose for two to five minutes on each side.
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Plow
This pose calms your mind and nervous system and also stimulates the organs responsible for healthy digestion and detoxification.
How to:
- Lay down flat on the ground with your arms extended parallel to your sides.
- Keep your palms pressed against the ground.
- Slowly lift your legs and torso towards the sky using the support of your shoulders, back, and arms. Your toes then arc over your body and past your head toward the floor.
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Savasana
Savasana will help your entire body relax, as well as calm your nervous system.
How to:
- Lying on your back, with your feet hip-width apart, relax your arms by your sides with your palms facing up.
- Let your shoulders soften away from your ears, keeping your neck long.
- Breathe and let gravity do its job for up to 10 minutes.
Claire Grieve is a highly sought after international yoga specialist, stretch therapist, plant-based health coach, and wellness writer. Claire underwent extensive yoga training with some of the world’s top yogis, studied nutrition through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and received her bachelor's in education from the University of Melbourne. Grieve has dedicated almost a decade to teaching and is on a serious mission to make yoga enjoyable and accessible to everyone. Her deep and pure passion for helping people transform through yoga and wellness has led her to work with with a vast array of celebrities, professional athletes, fitness leaders and people of all genders, professions, shapes and sizes.
For more yoga flows and mindfulness tips, check out Claire’s new ebook ENERGIZE!