In the world of yoga, a healthy body and a healthy mind go hand in hand to create spiritual fulfillment. The physical practice of yoga offers great healing potential and health benefits. Yoga postures involve a lot of stretching, for example, which increases your overall flexibility and reduces muscular tension. Opening your body in this way also cultivates heat in the body, which aids in detoxification and expands your breath. The more deeply and easily, you’re able to breathe, the more you increase vitality in your body by bringing oxygen to your muscles. You’ve probably noticed how exercise—whether it’s a workout at the gym, brisk walking, or yoga—makes you feel more energetic.

It’s important to spend a good amount of time in regular physical practice, not only for the outward benefits but also to strengthen your internal confidence, which may weaken if you have a negative relationship with your body. A solid practice also helps ward off harmful influences, such as the stresses of our technological world or toxins from food or the environment, all of which can lead to an unhealthy body—and mind and spirit.

wide-leg forward bend

• From Mountain, inhale and step your right foot back. Your feet should be about the same distance apart as the length of one of your legs.
• Exhale and rotate your body 90 degrees to the right, with your toes pointing toward the long side of your mat or turned slightly inward.
• Inhale and raise your arms overhead, palms facing each other.
• Exhale and hinge forward from your hips. Place your hands on your feet or on the floor so they’re aligned under your shoulders.
• Lengthen your spine, allowing the crown of your head to drop toward the floor, and gaze between your legs. Hold for 5 to 12 breaths.
• To release, inhale and look halfway up as you bring your hands to your hips. Exhale. Inhale again and reach your arms all the way up as you hinge back up from your hips to return to standing.
• Exhale and bring your hands back down to your sides as you rotate 90 degrees to the left, with your feet and hips facing the front of the mat, then step your right leg forward into Mountain.

Tips: For a more challenging option, bring your hands together behind your back and interlace your fingers, then try to straighten your arms and extend them toward the ceiling, working toward bringing them over and beyond your head.

exalted warrior

• From Mountain, inhale and step your right leg back. Your feet should be about the same distance apart as the length of one of your legs, with your right leg turned slightly out. Draw your left hip back and push your right hip forward to maintain good alignment.
• Exhale and bend your left leg, aligning the knee over your left ankle. Your leg should be bent to about 90 degrees.
• Inhale and slide your right hand down your right leg, avoiding putting extra weight onto the leg with your hand. Then reach your left arm up and back as you rotate your chest up toward the ceiling. Hold for 5 to 12 breaths.
• To release, inhale, contract the muscles in your right thigh, and activate your core as you straighten your left leg and return to an upright position, gazing straight ahead.
• Rotate 180 degrees to the right, with your hips and right foot facing the right (the back of the mat) and your left foot turned slightly out. Repeat steps 2 through 4 on the opposite side.
• Rotate 180 degrees to the left, with your hips and feet facing the front of the mat, and step your right leg forward into Mountain.

Tips: Elongate and stretch into the extension of your spine.

excerpt from Transformative Yoga: Five Keys to Unlocking Inner Bliss by Wade Imre Morissette