IMMUNITY SEQUENCE

The idea of immunity has gained so much importance in the last three weeks. Right from the physical immunity of being able to fight infections and diseases, to emotional immunity: immunity to fear and anxiety; immunity to scarcity; immunity to the sense of isolation.

People have deemed this pandemic as the biggest and unprecedented threat to modern civilisation. While the world shuts down, city-by-city, it is of utmost importance that we don’t feel isolated in a physically separated world. Our sense of immunity helps us stay strong the the trials and tribulations of what has come and what is yet to come.

The key to fighting any kind of attack – external or internal – is your immunity. The higher your immunity levels, the less likely you are to fall prey to germs/pesky negativity.

Last week, Pragya came across a sequence designed by the Yoga master, BKS Iyengar on the IYNAUS page. This sequence was originally designed during a virulent flu that had caused the RIMYI Institute, Pune to be shut down. It was designed to help the students who could not practice at Institute to stay in touch with the practice, and keep their bodies and mind strong during the testing times.

Pragya, then suggested to me that we bring this out and help more people access this sequence and within two minutes we were ready. We decided to focus on how yoga can help combat the direct and indirect effect of Covid-19 which was bringing the whole world to its knees. Yoga’s positive impact on boosting your immunity is proven and well documented.

The biggest impediment to immunity is stress. In the present climate of fear and anxiety, there is latent stress, even when things seem dull. A regular yoga practice helps in lowering your stress hormones and stimulates the lymphatic drainage, which eliminates toxins from your body. Asanas help in increasing blood circulation throughout the body, thereby keeping the organs healthy and feedback loops intact.

This sequence, in particular, works entirely on reducing stress and activating the higher brain centres, to keep the body sharp and ready, but relaxed.

Daily practice is challenging, sometimes even for yoga teachers. In order to motivate you to be regular to this practice, we put together a video (below) and a printable checklist. The video describes how to do each asana and has many alignment cues, teacher tips and other fun tidbits about the asanas. You can take a look, and follow along as you practice.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

This sequence may not work very well for you if you are an absolute beginner to yoga practice. The postures in this sequence are mostly inversions (where the head is below the hip), and they are very beneficial if you have been doing yoga practice for a while. Find a teacher or reach out to us, in case you are just starting out and we will guide you through these postures, maybe with the help of props.

This sequence is not good to be undertaken if you have any of the following conditions:

If you are on your menstrual cycle, this sequence should be avoided on the first three days.
Unregulated (high or low) blood pressure can be an issue since the asanas in this sequence may work adversely.
Migraine, at the time of practice, may not help do all asanas in this sequence.
Students who suffer from epilepsy should take caution while doing this sequence – avoiding anything that adds additional stress.
This sequence of asanas can be dangerous for students who suffer from aneurysms.
Unsupervised practice of this sequence is not advised for students suffering from deep depression or anxiety.

PRACTICE CHECKLIST

You can print out the practice checklist, if you prefer to see and do the asanas, and place it where you’re likely to see it, be it your practice space, your dresser, your bathroom mirror, in front of your desk etc. It’s a reminder to you that all of us need a little help with our yoga practice. You can download the Immunity Sequence Practice Checklist below.

Over the next few blogs, we’re going to be discussing each asana of the immunity sequence at length, giving you new insight into them.

Please reach out to us with your queries and we will help you out! We’re incredibly excited about this sequence and hope it really makes a difference to you.