Yoga Basics: Your breath and movement

≤15 min. Learn how to move with your breath. Start by lying down with your eyes closed and experience how the ribs move against the mat and bring your attention to the movement of your diaphragm. Once you tune into the breath --the prana as it is known in yoga, or the "life force energy" -- you begin to get in touch with the actions within your body. With that understanding, you begin to sync the movement of arms and legs with the breath -- eg., in-breath allows for extension, out-breath allows for flexion. From lying down position you move to hands and knees to move the spine with the understanding of breath movement -- a feeling of opening on the inhale, closing on the exhale. Next you apply the principles of moving with the breath in standing posture variations of chair pose (utkatasana) and mountain pose (tadasana) to reach your arms up in urdhva hastasana to then move into a modified forward bend (uttanasana). End this basic practice lying down to move the legs for hip flexion and extension in keeping with the inhalation and exhalation. You will not need any yoga props for the practice. Wear pants and a shirt without buttons and zippers and take off your socks so your toes can move freely.