"Just imagine yourself on a crucifix", I heard myself say. "Neck arched fully back but supported by the ball - jaw closed. Arms extended and allowed to hang - fingers only grazing the floor but taking no weight whatsoever."
I was trying to explain my favourite heart-chest-lymph opening exercise to my friend Andy, who is currently being treated for Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. Apart from nodes on his liver, he also has a node on his right lung, and we were talking about opening the heart-chest-lung-abdominal cavity; about sending LIGHT into those newly open spaces and wounded organs, and allowing a stretching and oxygenation of the whole chest & abdominal cavity.
It's hard to explain and so this post is actually for him. 😊
We spend SO MUCH of our lives bent FORWARDS, with our lungs not able to inflate fully, with our lymph glands compressed and our organs bunched up. Not everyone manages to get to yoga, and some of us manage it just once a week. Our weekly yoga class (Shivananda style) rarely does any really challenging chest opening work, and rarely for more than a moment. And so I add 10 mins of Pilates style crucifixion as a desk break - sometimes 2 or 3 times per day - at home. I try to find a place of perfect stillness with no wobbles and then practice deep, slow breathing and sending light into my chest and abdominal organs, one by one.
This position is actually much more challenging than it looks, Ideally, if you have abs of cast iron, you will be able to balance with your feet neatly together and find a place of complete stillness. It's a wonderful strengthening exercise for the obliques!! If you're still working towards cast-iron abs, then separate your feet a little. If you're a complete beginner on a Pilates ball, it's FINE to have your feet as wide apart as you can or need - it will help you to balance.
When I am holding this pose, for a full 10 minutes if I can (and yes, I DO set my alarm) I visualize.
- I try to see the lymph glands and nodes in my throat area and under my arms stretched, oxygenated, squeezed, cleaned and renewed;
- I try to feel my recently healed bottom ribs opening, and giving space to my small intestine to do its work more effectively;
- I send light to my damaged liver and see it renewing and repairing;
- I feel the bottom of each lung inflate fully;
- I feel myself giving more space to my heart and lungs, as my rib-cage opens;
- I send light to my spleen to make more of the best A grade blood there is!
- I send gratitude to my pancreas for its endless job managing sugar spikes, and I energize it to be more effective.
- I thank my reconstructed jaw for its tolerance of my sleep tooth grinding, and I send energy to the bones to continually repair and renew;
- I feel my neck and shoulders release... and I mentally try to let go of what is weighing me down.
- I enjoy the blood oxygenating my brain.
Tomorrow I will be conscious a little more that my right leg rolls slightly outwards. I will breathe into my right hip and straighten it, and try to bring my feet another inch closer together.
It's GREAT having someone photograph you occasionally, so you can SEE your own weak points and work on them.
When you come out of this position, please do it very slowly. Bend your knees first, lower your butt and roll off the ball into a sitting position, raising the head last, very slowly. If, like me, you have low blood pressure (my normal is 105/70) it's important to sit for a moment or two before you try to stand.
This is SUCH a simple exercise. SUCH a release for the head-neck-jaw-upper back after hours at the desk. It FEELS so good!
Don't have a Pilates Ball? Get one. In Chiang Mai, they're easy to find at either Decathlon, the sports stores in the malls, or at Global House. I think I paid about $10 for mine. Make a place for one in your home. Ours lives in the corner of our upstairs dining room. 😍
Our health is largely the sum of those little things we do daily - often. I would encourage you to seriously consider 10-20-30 mins a day counter-balancing the forward-slump-desk position, and actively oxygenating and invigorating yourself.
Cherish & savor the moments, for they are all we ever have.
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