Body & beauty

Yoga for calming your body and mind

Yogi Cat Meffan has a simple yin yoga flow to choose if you want to calm your mind and stretch your body

Yin yoga is a wonderful way to check in with a more restorative practice, whilst being curious and engaged with your emotions. All yin postures are held from two minutes, up to around 10 minutes, so the beauty of this yin yoga flow is that you have the choice whether to make it 10-minutes or 30-minutes. We’ll be working around the leg, checking in with the lower chakras. You can do these in any order, making sure you take time to rebound in between each pose. Your rebound position should be one of comfort (maybe balasana or savasana), where you can feel into any energetic sensations vibrating through the parts of the body that were being opened in the posture that came before. I recommend having some cushions and a block or two with you for this practice, as it helps to relax the body onto a support throughout certain postures.

Getting started

Start your practice by taking a few moments to arrive and ground into your mat. This can be down in a simple seated position. Roll the shoulders back, close your eyes and take a big inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Spend two minutes in each pose and take a short rebound between each one. If you’d like to make this practice longer, I recommend staying in each pose for four minutes. It’ll give you more of a mental challenge.

Dangling Forward Fold

This is one of the more active yin postures, so there will not only be energy flowing from a mental point of view, but the hamstrings will be working hard, too. Allow gravity to do the work here, take hold of your opposite elbows or just release the hands down onto the mat. Shift your weight towards to front of your feet, close your eyes and just breathe. It’s as simple as that.

Shoelace

Stack your knees on top of one another, with your bottom grounding into the mat. The closer the feet are to your body, the easier you’ll find it. To challenge yourself, wiggle your feet away from your body a little more. Either stay here, or take a forward fold and pop something under your forehead to rest on. This pose, like pigeon, can be extremely triggering on the emotions. We’re tapping into those lower three chakras throughout this whole practice.

Dragon

This is another active yin pose as your stabilising muscles (your core and glutes) will need to be switched on to keep you balanced. Come into a low lunge and then take the option of deepening the pose by bringing the back foot up towards your bottom. From there, if you’re able to take it further, you can reach your hand around and take hold of the ankle to help draw your foot in further. If needed, place a pad under your supporting knee to make the experience more comfortable.

Frog

This is my favourite hip-opener, but one I know can be challenging for many people. Aim to find a 90-degree angle in your hips and your knee, and use as many props as you want underneath you so you can feel into a sense of restoration throughout your time here.

The lower three chakras

Muladhara (Root chakra) – Grounding, stability, security and a feeling of safety and support

Svadishthana (Sacral chakra) – Attached to the emotional body, relationships, sexuality, creativity and expression

Manipura (Solar Plexus chakra) – Self-belief, power, confidence and self-esteem

Cat Meffan (@catmeffan) runs retreats and online classes. You can join Cat’s Soul Sanctuary membership for £22 a month and access her yoga flows, meditations and live Q&As. Find out more at, catmeffan.com/yoga-membership