Boost your Vitality in 5 Minutes for Free
5 minutes can mean the difference between feeling low energy and stagnant, and feeling vivacious, blissful, and full of vitality. In 5 minutes, you could change your whole vibe and experience real vitality. No pills, no supplements, no protein shakes. Just you, your body, your breath and 5 minutes of your time.
Last week we posted a video with a super simple, 5 minute vitality boosting routine every day for five days. We decided to post all 5 practices in one place so you can access your full potential for vitality any time.
Combining breath, sound and movement to create a bridge between your heart and sexual centers, you’ll leave not only feeling refreshed, alive, present, and integrated, but also with tools to help you feel your blissful best every day.
Explore how good your body can feel. Experience tools that you can actually use, feel, and apply. Experience real change, and embody, integrate and experience vitality firsthand. Let’s get started!
Vitality Booster #1
Seated Cat Cow with Breathwork
1. Sit in an easy pose and place your hands on your knees.
2. As you inhale powerfully, contract the spine, just like you would in cat, making a C-curve with the spine, and lowering the head.
3. As you exhale with a big sigh, flex the spine and tip the pelvis forward, roll the shoulders back opening the heart, and tilt your head up, letting your eyes hold a relaxed gaze at the ceiling.
4. Continue rhythmically with deep breaths. As you inhale feel the energy go down the spine. As you exhale feel it come back up to the third eye.
5. To end, inhale deeply, hold the breath, apply root lock (mula bandha), exhale and relax. Sit quietly and feel the energy circulate in your spine and throughout your body.
Benefits: This exercise stimulates and stretches the lower spine. Yogi Bhajan says that “Age is measured by the flexibility of the spine.” The movements also increase circulation of the spinal fluid which is linked to mental clarity..
Vitality Booster #2
Breath of Fire
1. Sit in an easy seated pose.
2. Raise your arms above your head and make a 45 degree angle.
3. Make two fists with your thumbs are stretching out, pointing towards each other above your head.
4. With your eyes closed, concentrate above the head and begin the breath of fire for 1 – 3 minutes.
5. To end, inhale deeply and bring the arms overhead with the tips of the thumbs touching. Exhale and relax the arms down.
Benefits: Clear the nasal passageways, and bring a large dose of fresh oxygen to your whole system, refreshing and increasing your energy levels. This breathwork practice is great if you’ve been doing lots of detail-oriented work at a desk or computer for a long time. It’s a great way to quickly bring your focus back and increase your productivity.
Vitality Booster #3
Vital Tribal Breath
1. Sit with legs stretched out in front of you, with your sits bones firmly planted on the ground.
2. As you inhale, draw both your hands up the front of your body raising both your hands above your head at the peak of your inhale.
3. As you exhale, bend from your pelvis and let your spine wave down over your legs, bringing your head to meet your knees as your arms stretch out over your legs in front of you. On the exhale, make a loud sigh, or ‘HA’ releasing any stuck energy or emotions with sound.
4. As you inhale again, draw your hands and arms up along the sides of your body until they are stretched out overhead, and repeat the forward bend as you exhale.
5. Your arms should be making a large circular movement up your torso, out and over your legs, and back up your legs and torso until they’re above your head. Almost like you’re taking a dress off.
Benefits: Cultivate mindful presence in your body, release stuck emotions or stagnant energy, rejuvenate and refresh your system with fresh oxygen. Activate your spine and help circulate vital energy through your whole system.
Vitality Booster #4
Twisting Breathwork
1. Sit in an easy seated pose.
2. Touch your hands to your shoulders, stretch your elbows out so that your little chicken wings are parallel with the ground.
3. Lengthen across the front of your chest.
4. On your inhale, twist your whole upper body to the left side and on your exhale swing your whole upper body to the right side. Inhale and exhale in this twisting pattern; inhale left, exhale right for 1-3 minutes.
5. To end, inhale and exhale deeply in the center, shaking out any energy that was stirred up in the practice.
Benefits: Twisting is an excellent way to naturally detox your major organs. Coupled with breathwork, this practice provides a highly effective way to release stress, toxins, and pent up emotions from your whole body. This practice also activates and brings energy to your spinal column, helping your cerebral-spinal fluid movements, bringing you greater cognitive function and spinal health.
Vitality Booster #5
Tap your Way to Vitality
1. You can do this practice seated or standing up. With open palms, pat or tap the front of your body; chest, stomach, liver, pelvic floor. Make sure as you tap your whole body, you continue breathing deeply and releasing with big sighs.
2. Raise one arm up at a time and tap your armpits, side body, and lungs.
3. Tap the back of your torso, make sure to give your kidneys a good ol’ pat on the back for doing such a good job.
4. Make your way patting down to your butt, hips, the outer line of your legs, ankles, feet, and up the inner line of your legs back to your stomach.
5. From here, make loose fists and in a steady, circular movement pound your stomach area. Kind of like how boxers punch a punching bag, make those same movements more gently on your stomach.
Benefits: Tapping is the quickest way to bring your presence and awareness out of your head and back into your body.
It also acts as a gentle massage; breaking up lactic acid build up and other calcifications to increase the flow of oxygen, blood, and help release pent up stress and emotions in the body.
Coupled with affirming mantras, like “I love my body!” this is a great tool to boost your vitality and reprogram your mind to be your ally rather than your enemy.