8 Spooky Yoga Poses To Get You In The Halloween Spirit
Halloween kicks off the season of sweet treats and parties so we thought it would be the perfect time to get out your yoga mat.
Yoga can get your metabolism and digestion functioning optimally so you can feel good and indulge in a few candy corns or caramel apples. You can do yoga at home in your living room in just ten to thirty minutes with this fun sequence. It doesn’t have to take a lot of your time to do a couple of yoga poses each day and get the yoga benefits because your body responds to anything good you do for it. The best way to keep yourself feeling like the fairy godmother instead of the wicked witch is to be consistent throughout the holiday season.
We’ve taken some liberty to adopt these yoga exercises into something
Venomous Cobra
This pose will give you a burst of energy as it releases energy stored in your spine. Begin laying on your stomach. Place your palms flat on the ground under your shoulders. Keep the legs together and the tops of the feet on the ground. Inhale as you press into your hands and lift your chest. Pull your shoulders down away from your ears and stretch across the chest. Take three slow and deep breaths and slowly lower down.
Witches Toad
This pose is great to get rid of stiffness in the hips and helps release anger. Traditionally known as frog pose, this pose stretches your inner thighs. Start on hands and knees and bring your knees apart with your feet turned out. Keep your feet in line with your knees and your knees in line with your hips.
Lower onto your elbows. Relax the stomach and let your head hang heavily as you breathe and relax in the pose for a minute.
Spooky Tree
This pose helps you feel focused and builds strong core strength. Stand with the feet together and lift the left foot placing it on the inside of the right thigh, while being sure to avoid putting pressure on your knee joint. Press the left foot into the right thigh and the right thigh into the left foot. Bring your palms together in front of your heart and lift them above your head as you breathe slowly and deeply. Slowly come out of the pose and do the same thing on the other side.
Mummy Pose
This pose, known as Eagle, helps flush those toxins and helps you have a healthy glow. Begin standing with your feet hip-distance apart. Lift your arms straight up in line with your ears. Sit back as if sitting into a chair and tuck your tailbone by engaging your lower stomach muscles. Lift the right leg up and over the left and see if the right foot will tuck behind the left calf or ankle.
Keep your chest up and spine straight. Swing your right arm under your left and wrap the forearms so the palms meet. Press the hands away from your face and sink a little deeper as you breathe slowly and deeply. Come out slowly and do the same thing on the other side with the left leg wrapping around the right and the left arm wrapping under the right arm.
Scared-y Cat
This is great for your lower back, stimulates your digestion, and tones the abdomen. Start on hands and knees with your fingers spread. Keep your arms as wide as your shoulders and your knees as wide as your hips.
Press into your hands and your round your back like a scared Halloween cat and pull your navel towards your spine. Tuck the chin into your chest and point your tailbone down as you take a few deep breaths through your nose.
Black Crow
This pose stretches your spine and helps build strong arms and core muscles while improving your self-confidence. Start in a low squat and plant your hands shoulder-distance apart on the ground. The secret to not rolling forward in this pose is to keep your head up and look up the whole time.
Bend your elbows to create a shelf and place each knee on the back of the arms. Keeping that head up slowly lean forward to take the weight out of your toes. Before you know it, you will be balancing on your arms. Take a few slow deep breaths and come down slowly.
Creepy Spider
This pose stretches the hips, shoulders, and lower back while strengthening the legs. Begin standing and take your feet about three feet apart. Bend your knees to come into a squat and reach your hands to opposite ankles crossing your arms.
Relax your neck letting your head hang heavily. If you feel comfortable, come up on your toes as you breathe slowly and deeply and then switch the cross of your arms to stretch both ways. When you’re ready to come out inhale as you stand up very slowly.
Dead Man Pose
This pose renews your energy by letting you completely relax. Lay on your back and cover yourself with a blanket if you’d like. Scan your body for any remaining tension and let that part of your body go. Let the ground support the weight of your body and literally don’t do anything.
Don’t think about your breathing, let the mind be still for at least seven minutes.
Read this next: 5 Simple Stretches To Reduce Hip Pain
The Benefits of This Spooky Yoga Flow
Doing yoga helps us stay in tune with what our body needs and this flow has the benefit of helping you deal with the stress that the holiday season can bring. Stress can sort of creep up on us when we start to get busier or feel pressured to attend people’s get-togethers and can come from little decisions or just having to make too many decisions.
Even picking out a Halloween costume or feeling pressure to decorate can add stress to your life. Breathing techniques are the yogi’s gift to us to combat and conquer stress. As you do these poses, breathe slowly and deeply through your nose and you will get much more out of them.
In fact, breathing is the most important part. The benefits of deep breathing go well beyond just giving you a calm feeling. The oxygen helps purify your blood, give you mental clarity, and more overall energy to seize the day. It also helps clear your aura from the vampires of the subconscious which creates negative vibes.
Breathing deeply can help you in so many ways and as we move into the upcoming holidays, it can help you deal with whatever comes your way. Yoga is not just poses, it is a connection to a state of peace and oneness and that connection comes from the breath. You can breathe deeply anywhere and maintain that sense of peace. This year, commit to experiencing a calm holiday by breathing slowly and deeply wherever you go.
Beyond the Grave
Don’t be afraid to enjoy the creepy and dreadful fun of Halloween this year.
Practice this Halloween yoga whenever you’d like and don’t afraid to pull these enchanted poses out whenever you feel in the mood for a good scare
So, until next time fellow yogis… unpleasant dreams.
