To understand this, imagine a chariot – an ancient analogy from the Upanishads:
When the driver loses control (operating from the ego or lower mind), the reins and horses take over, pulling the chariot into chaos. The Self is forgotten. Yoga trains the Buddhi to regain control – to calm the mind and guide the senses. The goal isn’t to escape life but to travel it with clarity, joy, and purpose. Yoga helps us stay on the path – steady, aware, and connected. *“Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind.” – Patanjali, Yoga Sutras **Quote from B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga ***Yoga sees the Self as pure consciousness, connected to all things. “Yoga can give you freedom that you didn't think was possible. “ bks. Iyengar
Yoga works on the physical self by stretching and opening it in a way that relieves the tightness, the resistance, the tension and the pain that has built up over time. Resistance, tension and pain occurs because of how your body has been reacted to the environment around you. These can be small reactions compounded over time, or from one big event that caused injury or physical trauma. The reaction is often a method of self protection, tissues sensitize around an area. This leads to physical habits that we aren’t aware of, cause us discomfort, don’t serve us and which we don’t necessarily need to hold onto. The exact same is true for the psychological self. Resistance, tension and stress occur because of how your mind has been reacted to the environment around you. These can be small reactions (Frustrations/worries ) compounded over time, or from one big event that caused emotional/ mental trauma. The reaction is often a method of self protection, emotions sensitize around an issue. This leads to mental-emotional patterns that we aren’t aware of, cause us discomfort, don’t serve us and which we don’t need to hold onto. “Yoga teachers us to cure what need not be endured, and endure what cannot be cured” BKS Iyengar. Yoga postures stretch and open us in a way that allows us to relax and release, both physically and psychologically. Unblocking energies in our bodies, congestion in our tissues and fixations in our thoughts. Yoga develops a greater self awareness. We begin to recognise our physical habits: eg. That you collapse the inner arch of the left foot, or that your head often tilts to the right or that your left quad over compensates for an inactive left glute. Once we know these things, we can start to do something about them, work with them to rebalance the body so that we feel more comfortable and aligned. It’s the same for mental patterns eg. you may realise you often look around and judge yourself on how the person next to you is doing, or that you often start thinking about what’s happening after class during the class, or that you prefer a certain place in the room and feel frustrated if someone gets there first. Once we recognise these mental habits, we can start to do something about them, work on them to rebalance the mind so that we feel more comfortable and aligned. When practicing yoga try to become a non judgmental observer. Treat the session as an exciting opportunity to investigate and better know yourself by observing the effect on the pose on your body mind and emotions. And observe with kindness and curiosity never criticism or judgement.
For a routine to practice during menstruation visit the online class page and choose the bite size yoga class called Menstrual sequence.
This article is to is to guide women on the how’s and why’s of adjusting their practice during their monthly cycle. There is a general practice done during menstruation, such as forward extensions and supine postures and avoidance of all the inversions, but everyone‘s needs slightly differ, therefore, everyone should have discrimination and understand their own problems, weakness and particular needs on different days. Regular practice brings a deeper sensitivity and awareness of these things. Sometimes we feel absolutely healthy and sometimes we feel hopeless. This is especially true for women during certain days of their menstrual cycled it’s important we go with that and don’t fight it. A key point to understand is that the menstrual blood has to be discarded, you should not hold the abdomen tight and so must choose those āsana-s which soften rather than harden the abdomen. Also during menstruation that you should avoid all inversions (upside down poses) Because the inversions disturb the downward flow and therefore the toxins being released. If the toxins, the waste matters such as sweat, urine, faeces, gas, menstrual blood and pus are retained, then the body suffers. Along with the above inversions you have to avoid arm balances and so on. Also you need to know that your legs should not get tired and that is the reason why you avoid (or minimise) the standing āsanas. During Menstruation instead you should practise supine āsanas followed by forward extensions with the forehead supported.The sitting postures are definitely helpful too, for when one wants to sit just quietly, using the support of the wall in order to learn to lift the spine. These āsanas (postures) preserve energy. It is important to under- stand that during the menstrual period, because oestrogen is going up, you feel active and you think that you can do everything. But the same oestrogen that will be reaching its peak in the next four days can be utilised for the right purpose. So you should not drain energy or create an imbalance in the hormones, if you preserve energy during menstruation, you will have better energy and a smoother cycle for the rest of the month. Also during menstruation you can not do much prānāyāma. You find that your capacity is less, there is often a feeling of internal fatigue. You should not force your body to do prānāyāma. Enjoy a long Śavāsana. Even if you sleep, it is nice, and there is nothing wrong with that. This has been written in close reference to Geeta Iyengar “The practice of women for the whole month’, Printed and published by the Iyengar Yoga Association (UK) April 2009. This is a fantastic 17 page document which I highly recommend anyone with menstrual issues to read. 
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