A yoga strap, also known as yoga belt, is a highly versatile accessory. You can use it in almost any yoga pose to correct your body posture, reach further or relax deeply.
In this blog post, I share a useful way to use it as a chest opener. It is easy to do and perfect to reduce back pain and improve your overall body posture. You can use the yoga belt while practicing certain yoga poses or after a long day sitting in front of your computer in order to open your chest (indeed, we often end up with a closed chest, shoulders curved inwards when working on computers). It is also great to improve your meditation experience, "forcing" your body to stay upright.
How to Use a Yoga Strap to Open my Chest
- Place the yoga belt around the back of your neck.
- Pull both ends of the strap under your arms and crisscross them behind your back (where you fasten the bra clasps).
- Bring the ends back to the front and pull gently to adjust and open the chest.
- Buckle below your chest (you should be able to breathe thoroughly).
Emotions and the Heart Chakra
The heart chakra or anahata chakra is the main emotional energy centre of the body. Expressions such as "being heart broken" illustrate it quite well. There is a tendency for our chest to close (leading to a curving of the shoulders) when we feel emotional pain. This is a way for us to protect the heart chakra from being hurt.
it is highly important to release all the tensions we accumulate in this part of the body and correct our body posture to go through life with an open heart, living life fully. Furthermore, it is much healthier and more beautiful to walk around with an upright back ;-).
Namaste my yogi readers!
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