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Move · 10 min

Gentle yogaby a window

Five slow shapes on the floor by the brightest window you have, in ten minutes, with nothing to prove.

10 minutesFrom the library, free to readFour steps
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You do not need a class, a special mat or a flexible body. You need a patch of floor, some daylight and ten minutes when nobody needs you. This is yoga at its plainest: a few slow shapes and a lot of breathing.

The steps

Four small steps,in your own time.

  1. Find the brightest window in the house and put a folded blanket or a towel on the floor in front of it.

  2. Sit or kneel and take three slow breaths, making each out-breath a little longer than the in-breath.

  3. Move through five easy shapes, staying in each for five breaths: on hands and knees, let your back round up and then dip down slowly; sit back towards your heels with your arms long in front of you; lie on your back and hug your knees in; let both knees fall gently to one side, then the other; lie still with your arms by your sides.

  4. Stay lying for one more minute, looking at the light. Then roll onto one side and get up slowly.

The reason

Why it helps

Slow movement with slow breathing tells the body it can stop bracing. Stiff backs and tight hips, which come with long hours of sitting, lifting or sleeping badly, ease a little when they are moved gently every day, more than when they are pushed hard once a week. The window matters too: daylight in the morning helps set the body clock, and that helps the night that follows.

A gentle variation

If getting down to the floor is hard, do it all in a chair: round and arch your back, reach your arms up, turn gently to each side with a hand on the chair back, then sit still with your feet flat. If anything pinches or hurts, skip that shape. Nothing here should hurt.

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WE · TRIBE

Try itwith someone.

Put two towels down side by side and take turns choosing the next shape. Nobody has to be good at it. If you look after someone who cannot get down to the floor, do the chair version together, facing the same window.

Make it a plan in HIVELIVE, with WE

Try it today

Today, put a towel down by your brightest window and move slowly through five easy shapes, five breaths in each. Then lie still for one minute.

Add it to your day

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