Preparation For The Yoga Class

Proper hydration important for me to get the best effect from a yoga class.

When I am properly hydrated with water mixed with sport electrolyte power, I never need to bring a water bottle to yoga class… Instead I need to bring additional towels because I am sweating so much!

I start my Pre-Yoga Ritual sequence 4 hours before each yoga class. For example, if I take a 9:30 a.m. yoga class, then I start preparing for this at 5 in the morning.

From 5 a.m. until 5:30 I'll drink 2 or 3 glasses of water.

At 6 a.m. I'll have a full breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast, orange juice and a cup of coffee. An hour following a meal, most of the food particles have moved into the small intestine. I can begin drinking water again because it will absorbed directly from the stomach into the body.

At about 7:30 a.m. I grab another glass of water again and I mix four glasses of water with hydration powder included before 8:30 a.m.

Let the kidneys do their job

During this hour I find myself urinating frequently. When I have hydrated properly, the final urination is very clear urine before I head off to the yoga class at 9:15.

My strategy is to allow the body to clear out all of the toxins possible through the kidneys functions.

Many of the heavier chemicals require an additional amount of water in order for the kidneys to clear these from our bloodstream. By hyper hydrating before the yoga class I find that I am clearing my body of all the toxins that I can through these systems.

As I attend the yoga class, my bloodstream is as saturated with water as possible.

The Second Stage Of Toxin Removal

Within the hot yoga studio, I sweat very easily. Sweat is another way to remove a layer of toxins from the bloodstream that may not be removed in other ways.

It is my belief that super hydrating before the class and urinating until your urine is clear - gives me a cleaner sweat that is focused on removing the lightweight chemicals of emotion that may have a short half-life.

To my mind, these are the stress chemicals that are floating in my bloodstream as a result of the habitual negative thinking looping in my mind from my (past) habit of ruminating on my frustrations and resentments...

Releasing Natural Accumulation of Stress

Especially when I first wake up in the morning, the emotional centers of the body in the solar plexus and the heart and other energy centers have been creating these emotional chemicals habitually automatically all night long.

A morning yoga class is my chance to clean these out, to reset them, and to give myself a chance to re-educate these primitive emotional centers.

By cleaning out completely with proper hydration and sweating in the yoga class we are achieving great detoxification, especially when we add in the beneficial effects of our Moore Breathing exercises.

Hydrate, Sweat, Breathe

The breathing exercises in yoga are key for coordinating the two parts of the brain at the same time as detoxifying the most volatile emotional chemicals.

The deep slow breathing at the beginning of the class is to expel those emotional chemicals from our body as we bring ourselves to Alpha brainwave State and practice our mental movies of the better feeling life that we are creating into our future.

At the end of class we breath is returned to our natural rhythm so we may nurture and enrich those new emotions that we rehearsing.

What is your pre-yoga routine? Do you have a specific ritual that you find grounding and centering? I would love to hear from you.