4 Pranayamas You Can Do Before Bed

Sleep is essential. It is the special time for our bodies and our minds to rest and renew. A good night’s sleep of 7-8 hours will benefit your overall health. Sleeping allows our hearts to rejuvenate. Having trouble sleeping can be very frustrating and can lead to low energy levels or total burn out!

Sleep deprivation can be caused by a busy mind. If we allow thoughts and worries to take over, we can cause our minds to be frantic and our bodies to be super-tense. When we are anxious and tense, we take short, shallow breaths, so instead we want to breathe slowly and deeply to induce a beautiful, relaxing sleep.

Deep breathing will relax the body, slow the heart rate and calm the mind. We are activating the parasympathetic nervous system which will have a relaxing effect on the body and you won’t need to lie awake counting sheep all night.

Make sure you have your phone off, lights dimmed, and then practice any of these pranayamas you can do before bed for several minutes.

1. Left Nostril Breath

The easiest breathing technique to activate the parasympathetic nervous system is to inhale and exhale through the left nostril. This will create a calming and soothing effect for the whole body. 
Simply close the right nostril off with the right thumb. Inhale through the left nostril and exhale through the left. Try to practice as slowly as possible with your eyes closed. 
Continue for as long as you can. Stay focused on your breath.

2. Brahmari — Humming Bee Breath

Brahmari is the Sanskrit word for “bee” and this is similar to the sound created when we practice this breath. It is totally calming and will help to cure sleeplessness. It is great for anyone suffering from anxiety, as it will create focus from distracting thoughts. In India, it is recommended for women in labor. 
Take a long inhalation through the nose, and on the exhalation create a humming sound from the throat. The inhalation and exhalation should be steady and slow. On the inhale, close your eyes and breathe through the nose; on the exhale close off the ears with the index fingers, keeping the eyes closed and make a humming sound with the voice. 
It will completely soothe the mind and the nervous system. It becomes easier as you practice.

3. Belly Breathing

This breathing technique is particularly good for when you are feeling a little tense or anxious. 
Lie on your back, either on your yoga mat or your bed. Breathe deeply from your abdomen, getting as much air as you can into your lungs. As you inhale, your belly should rise, and as you exhale your belly should fall. 
If you find it difficult to manage, place a yoga block or book on top of your belly. As you inhale you should be pushing it up with your belly, and as you exhale it will come back down. 
Taking deep breaths from the belly, rather than short breaths from your upper chest will allow you to inhale more oxygen. The more oxygen you take in, the deeper your breath and the more relaxed you will feel.

4. 7-2-11 Relaxing Breath

The 7-2-11 might sound like a grocery shop, but this is actually the timing of your breath. 
On the inhale, we inhale quietly through the nose for the count of 7, retaining or holding the breath for the count of 2 and then releasing on the exhale to the count of 11 with a “whooooosh” sound out of the mouth. 
This exercise is like a natural sleeping tablet, it will completely relax the nervous system. It might take a couple of times to figure out the timing but the more you practice, the more power you will gain. Practice it everyday for 4-8 rounds. 
This breathing technique will be your go-to calming device whenever you need it. It is a powerful, effective tool to have, and more useful than your favorite app on your phone!
It only takes a few moments of your time to practice these breathing techniques. Find one that you love and begin to introduce it when you’re driving, when you’re at work… you can literally take it anywhere with you! 
This is the first and best step to looking after yourself and loving yourself a little more. Breathe! It is so simple, yet why do we not pay more attention to our breath? We are too busy, too distracted. or too  stressed to remember. Our breath is our energy. Breathe better, think better, sleep better, and feel better.

What’s your favorite pranayama to practice before you go to sleep? Share with us in the comments below!

Sinéad McKiernan Yoga teacher based in Galway, Ireland. Studied in India. I am registered with Yoga Alliance and I teach to adults and children. I love being by the sea, travelling, meditation, eating good food & drinking tea! I am also an Artist/ Designer Hope to connect with you! You can find me on www.loveyoga.eu , Love Yoga on Facebook , Tweet @sineadloveyoga or Instagram @sineadloveyoga x 

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How to Do L-Pose Handstand at the Wall

Going upside down on your hands can be slightly intimidating, but everyone’s got to start somewhere. Enter the L-Pose Handstand.

The perfect introduction to Handstand (especially for students who aren’t quite ready to kick up to the wall), the L-Pose allows you to become comfortable going upside down with weight on your hands in a more controlled manner.

Plus, it’s a fantastic strength builder and shoulder opener for yogis of all levels, and a great tool for teachers.

If you feel strong and comfortable with straight arms in Downward Facing Dog and are ready to try going upside down, below is a step-by-step guide to L-Pose at the wall.

Step 1

Sit on your mat with your back against the wall, and with your legs straight out in front of you pressing out through your heels. Reach your arms straight over head with the backs of your hands pressing into the wall.
Notice that you’re in the shape of an “L” with a 90-degree bend at your waist. Now imagine inverting your shape — placing your palms where your heels are on the mat and your heels pressing into the wall where the backs of your hands are, making the same “L” shape.

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Step 2

Using a block or any object lying around, mark where your heels are on the mat, and come onto all fours with your hands in line with your marker, knees under hips and the soles of your feet pressing at the wall.
Spreading your fingers, press down through the pads of your thumbs and index fingers and straighten your arms. Draw your shoulder blades firmly onto your upper back and broaden your collarbones.

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Step 3

Tuck your toes under on the floor and straighten your legs, coming into a shortened version of Down Dog at the wall. (You’re going to feel like you’re way too close to the wall, you’re not – leave your hands in line with your marker.)

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Step 4

Continue to press the inner edges of your palms down into the mat and your arms straight as you take one foot up the wall with your toes curled under at about the height of your hips.

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Step 5

Begin to straighten the raised leg, pressing the sole of your foot into the wall, and sending your hips over your shoulders as you bring the second leg up to join the first.
Here’s where some fear tends to creep in. Most students are leery of sending their hips over their shoulders, and will often walk their feet higher up the wall to avoid the 90-degree bend. Or they will sometimes walk their hands further away from the wall, making it impossible to come into the shape of an L.
If that’s you, simply walk your feet back down to where you can put your soles flat into the wall and your legs parallel to the floor.

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Step 6

With your hands, shoulders, and hips stacked, press the soles of both feet firmly into the wall and straighten both legs.
Now you’re in L-Pose!

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Did you try it? Does L-Pose Handstand seem more approachable than Handstand? Let us know in the comments below!

Meagan McCrary Meagan McCrary is an experienced yoga teacher and writer with a passion for helping people find more comfort, clarity, compassion and joy on the mat and in their lives. She is the author of "Pick Your Yoga Practice: Exploring and Understanding Different Styles of Yoga", a comprehensive encyclopedia of prominent yoga styles and practical wisdom. Knowledgeable, passionate and playful, her teaching style is incredibly inclusive and empowering, and her retreats are transformative. Check out her blog and latest offerings at www.MeaganMcCrary.com, and play along with Meagan on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

http://www.doyouyoga.com/how-to-do-l-pose-handstand-at-the-wall/

10 Ways to Start a Personal Sadhana Practice

It’s amazing sometimes what just a little bit of time out can do for you; so that is my challenge to you for this week, or even for the month of April — to take some time out with yourself, for yourself.

I know we all lead incredibly busy lives — we run from place to place, constantly plugged into technology of one kind or another. We look after all those around us, and when asked to find the time to meditate, do yoga, take a break, or “indulge” in something that we actually love or enjoy doing, we will more often than not be seen to throw our hands in the air and exclaim that we don’t have time for that!

But even 15 minutes a day can make a huge difference. Fifteen minutes a day can help you to “find yourself” and move through the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of your day in a much happier, more inspired and alive way. We can all find 15 minutes in the day, right?

Creating a Sadhana

I invite you to create a sadhana. The word sadhana means daily spiritual practice and the idea of this, is that for just 15 minutes a day you get to think of you and only you.
Truly, a sadhana can be anything that makes your heart sing. There is only one rule — that you commit to it every day, no matter what. Here are some ideas of ways you can create your own sadhana:

1. Asana

3-12 simple rounds of Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskara) will set you up for your day like never before! Notice how much more awake, alive, and tuned in you feel.

2. Meditation

Sit with a simple breath meditation. Follow the breath, the inhale and the exhale — or you could add a mantra that flows with the breath if that helps.

3. Journaling

An ideal way to start or end your day, as it helps you to clear your mind and regain focus. It’s most beautiful to simply allow the words to flow.

4. Commune With Nature

Go for a walk in the fresh air. Nature has a way of soothing the soul and allowing inspiration to flood in.

5. Affirmations

Positive affirmations done regularly can have a hugely powerful impact on your life. Work with around three at a time and repeat twelve times each.

6. Morning Intention

Set an intention for the day. It may be simply that you want to have a love-filled day, or there may be something that you need help achieving.

7. Pranayama

Commit to breathing, and I mean really breathing. Breath of Fire, Alternate Nostril Breathing, or full yogic breathing are all good options.

8. Gratitude Journal

At the end of each day, spend some time writing down all the things you are grateful for. This will help you spend as much time in gratitude as possible.

9. Be Creative

Write poetry, paint, sing, dance. Even if you write poetry that’s only ever read by you or sing words that only your ears will ever hear.

10. Be Present

A sadhana doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as lighting a candle every morning to welcome in the day and sitting in blissful silence.

I’d love to hear your sadhana ideas and results. Share in the comments below so we can all be inspired!

Kirsty Gallagher I am an International yoga retreat and workshop teacher, dedicated to sharing my infectious passion for yoga, womens wellbeing and life worldwide. I have been teaching for nearly 10 years, focusing on retreats for 5 years and taught over 60 retreats. I have taught and presented at the British Yoga Festival, London Mind, Body, Spirit Festival, OM Yoga Show, Healing Ibiza and Wilderness festival. I am a regular contributor for Yoga Magazine and Do You Yoga and have had articles featured in Yoga Life Dubai, Spirt & Destiny and a number of online sites. My retreats have been independently reviewed by Yoga Magazine and Queen of Retreats. Come share the love at www.kirstygallagher.com
View Kirsty's profile »
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Handstand Tutorial

Want to work toward a safe and confident handstand? Try these tips, while applying the principles of persevering practice and non-attachment to your practice.

  BY Mark Stephens

Part of the sublime nature of hatha yoga is the infinite potential it offers for deepening, refining, and evolving our practice as a process of self-transformation. At first, a new asana or pranayama technique might seem altogether daunting. But through abhyasa, or persevering practice, we stay fully committed to the path, and with vairagya, an attitude of non-attachment, we embody our higher intention instead of identifying with the outcome of the pose or the completion of a goal.

Handstand helps build strength, confidence, and self-acceptance.

We’ll examine these principles by working toward adho mukha vrikshasana (downward-facing tree pose, or handstand). An intermediate-level asana, handstand helps us build strength, confidence, and self-acceptance. It supports transformation precisely because it is challenging: it challenges us to stand on our hands instead of our feet, to find balance when our normal relationship to gravity is inverted, and to overcome a palpable and perfectly rational fear of falling. By persevering through these challenges we generate tapas, the self-purifying inner fire of transformation.

Wisdom of Gradual Progression

To integrate abhyasa and vairagya in hatha practice, we can work with the concept of vinyasa krama. Vinyasa means “to place in a special way” and krama, or “stage,” refers to the effective sequencing of actions. Vinyasa krama allows us to chart our course through a more sustainable and accessible practice by giving each successive asana a meaningful place in relation to what has come before and what will follow.

A vinyasa krama practice typically follows an arc-like structure, first sequencing toward the peak asana(s) by moving from simple to more complex postures that warm the body and give targeted attention to areas where you will work more deeply. Anticipatory asanas help open and stabilize the muscles and joints most involved in the peak pose. After exploring the peak, the sequence follows a path of integration toward shavasana, each successive asana releasing the tension that may have arisen in earlier stages.
As you apply these principles in the handstand sequence that follows, cultivate an abiding sense of vairagya: allow the asanas and the practice to come to you as you consciously explore opening to them. Use the breath and the intensity of physical sensation to guide your effort, and remember that it is not about how far you go but how you go. You may find your practice is best explored without getting to the fullest expression of the peak pose.

Watch a Video of the Handstand Sequence

This brief handstand tutorial demonstrates some of the practices outlined in this article. Watch it—and after you read the article, use it as a mini-class as you build strength for adho mukha vrikshasana.

 

Anticipatory Warming and Awakening

To begin, warm the body with the surya namaskar (sun salutation) variation of your choice. Pause to explore in the asanas where there are elements that anticipate handstand or that prepare the body to ultimately make handstand more accessible, as follows:

In tadasana (mountain pose), cultivate pada bandha (energetic activation through the feet) as a tool for awakening awareness along the midline of the body, accessing mula bandha (root lock), and stimulating the flow of energy up through the core of the body.

Practice urdhva hastasana (upward hand pose) while maintaining pelvic neutrality, natural extension of the spine, and full flexion of the arms overhead. This pose has all the alignment principles that you will try to find in handstand, and is particularly helpful in feeling pelvic neutrality in relation to the spine, and neutral spinal extension while reaching the arms fully overhead.
In anjaneyasana (low lunge pose), gradually release more deeply to stretch the hip flexors, especially the iliopsoas.

Hold phalakasana (plank pose) for up to one minute to gain a sense of buoyancy through the hands, arms, and shoulder girdle. Phalakasana also awakens the transverse abdominal muscles that help stabilize the torso in handstand.

If practicing chaturanga dandasana (four-limbed staff pose), keep the legs and abdomen active while awareness is naturally drawn into the hands, arms, and shoulders. Keep the shoulder blades rooted on the back for increased stability and ease, and don’t bring the shoulders lower than the elbows to protect the shoulder joint. Keep the knuckles of the index fingers firmly rooted to maintain balanced grounding through the hands and wrists.
In adho mukha shvanasana (downward-facing dog pose), you will learn, develop, and refine most of the elements of handstand.

Downward-facing dog teaches us the principle of roots and extension: as you root down, you equally extend and stabilize. Balance the pressure across the hands by pressing down more firmly through the knuckles of the index fingers. Try to feel the “rebounce” effect of this rooting action in the natural lengthening through the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints. If you have difficulty straightening your arms, play with turning your hands slightly out; if you tend to hyperextend your elbows, turn the hands slightly in.
Tight or weak shoulders create specific risks to the neck, back, elbows, wrists, and the shoulders themselves, in downward-facing dog and handstand. Moderate effort in downward-facing dog develops both strength and flexibility, opening the shoulders to greater flexion. Externally rotating the shoulders may cause the inner edges of the hands to lift; balance this effort by internally rotating the forearms, thereby establishing stability and ease in the hands, wrists, and shoulders.
With each exhalation, feel the light and natural engagement of your abdominal muscles. Try to maintain that subtle engagement while inhaling, without gripping in your belly. This light engagement in your core is a key source of stability in handstand.

Opening the Shoulders

One of the main challenges in handstand arises from tight shoulders. Imagine for a moment that you are able to raise your arms only halfway overhead, and that you are now in handstand—the rest of your body will not be able to line up over your arms. This is why many bodies are shaped like a banana when in handstand, making balance more elusive.
The easiest path to opening the shoulders to full flexion is through adho mukha shvanasana, as well as garudasana (eagle pose) and gomukhasana (cow face pose). Garudasana arm position stretches the rhomboids, a key set of muscles which can restrict movement of the shoulders when they’re tight. Gomukhasana arm position opens the chest and shoulder girdle.

You can also play with lying on a rolled blanket placed across your shoulder blades; interlace your fingers and stretch your arms overhead.

Preparation for Handstand

To move closer toward adho mukha vrikshasana, come to a wall. Start with your hands on the wall at hip height, with your hips aligned over your heels. Look forward to position the arms parallel, then gaze at your belly to draw your lower front ribs in. Rotate your pelvis forward to bring your sacrum more level with the floor, and bring your ears level with your arms. 

Pressing your hands into the wall, spiral the tops of your shoulder blades away from the spine while rooting the bottom tips of the shoulder blades into your back; balance this action by internally rotating the forearms and pressing through the knuckles of the index fingers. Activate your legs and try to press your hips away from your hands; then slowly extend one leg up behind you. Be more interested in keeping the hips level than in how high you raise the leg. Hold for several breaths before switching sides.
Next, reverse this position: place your hands where your feet were, place one foot on the wall where your hands were, and press into the foot to straighten the lifted leg; then place your other foot on the wall alongside. If you feel comfortable, extend one leg up to the sky, then switch sides. Try to hold for one minute, then release into uttanasana (standing forward bend pose).

If you have the strength to hold the second preparatory position for over a minute, you most likely have the strength to do full handstand for at least several breaths. Otherwise, stay with the preparatory practices until you feel sufficiently steady and relaxed with them.

The Peak Pose 

Getting Up into Handstand

There are several ways to get up into handstand, each one progressively more challenging: using assistance (which may get you up prematurely), scissor kicking, or piking.

Scissor Kicking

Come into downward-facing dog with your fingertips placed about five inches away from a wall (closer if you have really open shoulders and hip flexors). Keeping your arms straight and strong (without hyperextending the elbows), walk in until your shoulders are aligned over your wrists. Gazing between your thumbs, extend one leg up about two feet off the floor, keeping it straight, strong, and internally rotated. This is your swinging leg. 

Now start to play with springing off the other leg while simultaneously extending your swinging leg up overhead. With each exhalation you will feel the natural engagement of your abdominal muscles. Without gripping in your belly, try to maintain this light engagement in your core as you spring and swing up with the inhalation. The moment you’ve released your springing leg, make it straight and strong too, feeling that leg being pulled to the sky by the momentum of your hips and swinging leg. Keep springing and swinging until both legs meet at the wall.

Piking

When you’re comfortable scissor kicking up with either leg, graduate to piking. Start as before in downward-facing dog, but with the hands about six to eight inches away from the wall, and feet just about a foot closer in from downward-facing dog. 

Gazing down between the thumbs, play with simultaneously making both legs into springs, while shifting your weight forward and back over your shoulders. Keep your arms and shoulders stable, and envision rotating your pelvis up toward the wall as you spring off both feet as powerfully as you can. The moment you’ve sprung, make both legs straight and strong, elevating your hips over your shoulders and bringing your legs parallel to the floor, and eventually straight up overhead.

Aligning into Balance

Now it’s time to explore balancing. Upon arriving upside down in handstand, drop your head to gaze across the room, draw your lower front ribs slightly in, and try to find pelvic neutrality. Press firmly down through your hands while rooting the knuckles of your index fingers. Maintain external rotation of the upper arms and begin to press even more strongly down through your hands. If it is comfortable for your neck, shift your gaze down between your thumbs; while this makes alignment in the spine more challenging, it makes balancing easier.
Bring your awareness to your legs. Keeping the ankles together, internally rotate the thighs and energize out through the balls of the feet, while spreading the toes. As you root your hands and extend up through the entire length of your body, create a feeling of drawing energy to the midline, cultivating stability deep in the core. Use the actions of your feet and legs to more easily access and sustain mula bandha, accentuating a sense of awakened energy drawing along your spine.

It's equally important to know how to get into the pose--and how to get out of it.

Rather than drawing one leg and then the other away from the wall, keep strongly rooting and extending while visualizing your body coming into a straight line from the wrists through the shoulders, hips, and ankles. Get longer while stabilizing your shoulders, torso, and legs, continuously drawing energy to center. Keep the breath smooth and steady. As you get longer and more stable, your hips will gravitate over your wrists, your heels will leave the wall, and your body will gradually align into initial balance.

To refine your balance, play with slight movement of your lower ribs in and out, and slight rotation of your pelvis forward and back, until you feel like you are in better alignment. If you have strong and resilient wrists and you’re close to balance, play with alternately pressing more and then less firmly into your fingertips, feeling how this shifts your balance slightly forward and backward from center.

Integrating

It is important to know not just how to get into a pose but how to get out. This means not just coming down from handstand, but integrating the experience through pratikriyasana, or opposite action, which dissolves whatever tension has arisen and restores energetic balance.
However far you make it toward handstand, when releasing, first come into uttanasana or balasana (child’s pose) for at least a few breaths.

Use basic wrist movements and shoulder openers to relieve tension in the wrists, shoulders, neck, and upper back. For release in the wrists, come up to sitting in virasana (hero pose) with your palms together in anjali mudra (reverence seal), then reverse your hands, fingers pointing down, and press the backs of your hands and fingers into each other.

Shake out your hands really well, place your fingertips on the floor and repeatedly snap them toward each other, with the fingertips lifting off the floor but not touching. Play around with other wrist stretches, such as moving your hands around in circles.

For a calming progression, rest in balasana, release the spine with simple twists, and settle into a forward bend such as pashchimottanasana (posterior stretch).

If instead you prefer to move with the awakened energy and warmth created through your handstand practice, consider exploring heart-opening backbends such as setu bandha sarvangasana (bridge) and dhanurasana (bow pose).

Unless you have very happy wrists, avoid backbends such as urdhva dhanurasana (wheel) that hyperextend the wrists.
As you complete your overall practice session, settle into a profoundly restful shavasana, assimilating a deeper sense of abhyasa and vairagya. Let the persevering practice be one of doing nothing: allow the breath to flow freely and surrender into blissful awareness.
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7 Kundalini Yoga Postures to Clear the Chakras

by Ramdesh Kaur 

“Men of great knowledge actually found out about the chakras – their workings, their petals, their sounds, their infinity, their co-relationship, their powers.  They found that theLIFE of a human is totally based on these chakras.  They developed into a whole science.  This total science gave birth to Kundalini Yoga.  That is how Kundalini Yoga was born.” – Yogi Bhajan

The human body is a complex system encompassing vast energy systems that are not immediately perceptible with our limited eyes.  The chakras are energy vortices powered by prana,or life force.  By clearing the energy blocks from our chakras, we allow the Kundalini energy to rise up through us, invigorating and uplifting our minds and bodies to new heights.

Asana,or postures, are positions of the body used to activate and direct energy to open both a physical and an energetic position in the body.  When using Kundalini yoga to clear the chakras, asana are useful to open pranic flow.

1)  First Chakra, the Root Chakra (Muladhara):  Foundations, fear,SURVIVAL

Asana:  Crow Pose

2) Second Chakra, the Sacral Chakra (Svadisthana):  Creation, desire, relationships

Asana:  Frog Pose

Keep the heels together and the fingers on the ground.  Inhale through the nose as you straighten your knees; exhale through the nose as you squat down.

3) Third Chakra, the Solar Plexus (Manipura):   Will, action

Asana: Stretch Pose

Lift the head and the feet six inches off the ground.  Bring the arms up, palms facing.  Stare at the toes.  Do breath of fire.

4) Fourth Chakra, the Heart Chakra (Anahata):  Love

Asana:  Camel Pose

If full camel pose is too much of a stretch for you, place your hands in the small of your back for support and arch backwards with your head.

5) Fifth Chakra, the Throat Chakra (Vishuddha):   Communication

Asana:  Cobra Pose

Lie on the ground, hands under the shoulders, palms flat on ground.  Push up, lifting the heart and letting the head follow, keeping the pelvis on the ground.  If this is too much of a stretch, try Sphinx pose, keeping your elbows on the ground as you arch your head back.

6) Sixth Chakra, the Third Eye (Ajna):   Intuition, Wisdom

Asana: Guru Pranam

Sit on the heels.  Bring the torso over the thighs and place the forehead on the ground.  Extend the hands in front of you on the ground in prayer.

7) Seventh Chakra, the Crown Chakra (Sahasrara):   Transcendence, TheSEAT of the Soul

Asana: Sat Kriya

Sit on the heels.  Stretch the arms over the head with elbows straight, hugging the ears.  Interlace all fingers except the index finger, which you extend.  Men cross the right thumb over theLEFT; women cross the left thumb over the right.  Chant “Sat nam” at a constant rhythm.  As you chant “Sat” pull in the navel; as you chant “nam” release the navel.  Draw the energy up the spine. Eyes closed.  (3-31 minutes)

Sat Kriya is a complete Kundalini yoga workout for all of the chakras.  It is an amazing and powerful practice, complete and entire in one asana and mudra.  Doing Sat Kriya everyday for 40 days will have a profound effect on the function of your chakras.  It specifically works on waking up the Kundalini energy and helping it move up your spine through your chakra system.

No chakra stands alone; the chakra system is holistic and interrelated.  You cannot work on one chakra with Kundalini Yoga without addressing the needs of the rest.  The Lower Triangle (the first, second and third chakras) deals with elimination, while the Upper Triangle (fifth, sixth, and seventh chakras) focuses on accumulation.  They meet at the fourth chakra, the heart chakra, an essential point of balance between these forces.

There is another kriya that uses Sat Kriya to work specifically on each chakra called Sat Kriya for the Chakras. This wonderful kriya lets you do variations of Sat Kriya in asanas specifically affecting each chakra.  It helps to clear the body for the rise of Kundalini energy.

http://www.spiritvoyage.com/blog/index.php/7-kundalini-yoga-postures-to-clear-the-chakras/