Let It Go Yoga is a mystical, magical journey of which the benefits are so personal and varied that we hate to put limitations on what you will receive. Let It Go Yoga is not one specific thing. There is a mystery and magic to Let It Go Yoga that can only be experienced by practicing it. The benefits are vast and depend on how often you practice and what you are looking to obtain.

We ask our students to set an intention to their practice – during an opening meditation we ask: ”What is it you would like to receive from your Let it Go Yoga practice?” We have absolute faith that whatever it is our students say they want, they will get! That’s the magic! Our students have asked for relief of physical pain, to release tension, to add balance, to become stronger. We are certain that they will get that. We worked with a diver who wanted to be able to hold his breath for 4 minutes and a singer who wanted to breathe deeper. We have had students who want to let go of relationships and jobs that no longer served them. We even had a student who wanted to become taller! Everyone of these students received want they asked for! It is still a mystery why this practice works so well for so many but let’s take a look at what is Let It Go Yoga and what makes it different from other yoga practices.

 

Want to know more about Let It Go Yoga? Click here to view your free Diaphragmatic Breathing Video!

 

Just like the other styles of yoga Let It Go Yoga is a form of Hatha Yoga but the entire practice is done lying down. It’s a little misleading because, even though you lie down to practice, the poses are not easy, they are gentle but challenging. It is a “work out”. It works the entire body. Each pose has an uncanny way of finding the areas in the body that need to be strengthened or released. It is a very simple, easy to learn series of 26 poses. The poses are first practiced on the right side and then the left, and then incorporating the two sides of the body with finishing poses. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to complete the practice, including a final relaxation that allows you to assimilate the work. It’s great because most anyone can do it as it can be modified in many ways, so that it becomes a personal practice, just right for each individual.

Another big difference is that you close your eyes to do it! In this day of ubiquitous photographs and video, it can be a completely new way of learning. To close your eyes and go inside and feel the poses. In fact a big lesson the practice can teach is that it doesn’t matter what it looks like! You have to feel it. If you feel it, it’s working for you. When you close your eyes to practice, you have to listen. Listen to the instructions but also listen and rely on yourself to figure it out. You become your own teacher. How does the pose feel to you? What do you need to adjust to make it work for you? You also let go of comparison and competition. We ask that our Let It Go Yoga teachers do not demonstrate the poses because we don’t want the students to feel it has to be a certain way, there is no one right way. Sure, there are alignments to add and subtle adjustments a teacher can help you with, but the poses will look different for different people. It’s ok if your pose does not look picture perfect and there is no such thing as another person doing better than you…you are doing it right! What a relief! You can just be yourself.

OK, so now you are lying down on your back with your eyes closed and then what? You pay attention… pay attention to your thoughts (that’s always entertaining), you pay attention to your body (some parts of you will demand it) and you pay attention to your breathing (very close attention to the breath)! Let It Go Yoga gives you time to learn to control your breathing and time in each pose to become aware of and learn to control your thoughts and feelings.

 

Want to know more about Let It Go Yoga? Click here to view your free Diaphragmatic Breathing Video!

 

As you breathe deeply you will begin to relax and focus inward as your magical journey begins. Moving with the breath, you begin the series by simply bringing the right knee to the chest. Your hands grasp around your bent leg and the left leg remains on the floor with the foot flexed. It’s called the Knee to Chest Pose (Apanasana in Sanskrit, meaning, downward moving life force pose ), What’s so good about this pose? Well, physically it works your entire body. Bringing the knee toward the chest till you feel it in the hip flexor, relieves digestive problems, it stretches the lower spine and back muscles, opens the hips. It is used to ease anxiety and can be good for stomach aches and menstrual cramps. The pose also stretches the shoulders, the hands, the forearms. It improves your posture, it teaches you how to ground yourself and how to let go! When you hold the pose for two minutes (or longer if you’d like) gravity will help you and after a while your body will release the need to hold on so tightly. You will soon feel your shoulders sink down and away from your ears. You will learn that you can hold onto the knee with very little effort and still stay in the pose. You will begin to allow your back, your neck, your shoulders to relax to the floor. Your breath will deepen and you will feel the benefits of extra oxygen in your lungs. And this is just the first pose!

From here the practice takes you into the Right Angle Pose – a challenging posture that will definitely bring you into the present moment! Your job is to find the place where you feel it the most and then relax around it. Yes, you are working on learning to relax and not respond to a challenging pose, to just be and just observe. You will notice that this pose opens the hips, stretches the shoulder, arm and hand. It relieves tension in the back and buttocks. Even the left leg is benefiting from holding the flexed foot and has helped students release foot pain and plantar fasciitis!

As you continue along, each pose will flow from one to another working another part of your body. Then Let It Go Yoga gets really interesting because the poses have a magical way of finding the place you need to pay attention to the most. When you hold a pose and are attentive you begin to notice that your emotions are much like your thoughts, they bubble up here and there, and try to take over. At times your mind will be relaxed and calm. Other times your mind will be busy and full of emotions. Thoughts and feelings that need to be remembered and acknowledged to be released may surface. During your practice you may have an inspired thought and solve a problem that has been bugging you. You may have a memory and realize that you need to do some additional work on releasing the past. You may feel angry or sad, or joyful and ecstatic. You learn how to be with your thoughts and emotions without reacting. And most importantly, how to get still enough to go deeper inside of yourself for advice and counsel. You empower yourself because you are the expert on the subject of you! Let It Go Yoga is a tool that will gently allow you to discover and uncover tensions in the body and let go on a very deep level. This provides a healing that frees your body from fear and tension, and releases physical pain and frees your mind of worry and stress and leaves you calmer and more peaceful and open to accessing your inner guidance.

So, you can see that Let It Go Yoga is more than an exercise. It is a self empowering healing tool that will give you whatever you need to help your life work better. When you add this level of self awareness to your yoga practice, you add more awareness to your whole life. It’s all connected. All this magic happens when you lie down and practice these poses, close your eyes, breathe deeply, pay attention, control your thoughts, surrender to the present moment and just let it go.

Contributed by Sue Anne Parsons

 

Want to know more about Let It Go Yoga? Click here to view your free Diaphragmatic Breathing Video!