Week Five ~ Jalandhara Bandha, Throat Channel

Hello everyone,

In the few seconds it took me to type in the recipients for this letter, I watched a beautiful sunny day outside turn to lashing rain and strong winds. Is this strange May weather?! As I sit here with my ginger and lemon tea, always overprotective of my singing voice which I use to teach music every day, I am feeling grateful for our yoga theme this week! Jalandhara Bandha, the throat lock (or throat channel, as I'm calling it). 

This Sunday will be two perfect yoga practices to help release tension in your throat, neck, shoulders, relieve sinuses, and improve the function of your thyroid, which is a butterfly gland in your neck that produces hormones essential for healthy metabolism, mental clarity, heart rate, immune system, and reproductive function (among other things!)

Before we get into this week's theme of jalandhara bandha, I would just like to say a big THANK YOU to each of you for joining our bandha yoga term this month. It has been such a pleasure to move and share space with you the past five weeks :) We are running straight into a new term next Sunday at Thrive, May 24th, which will be another five week block (but with a break for the June bank holiday weekend/May 31st). Your choice of Hatha Flow at 5pm, or Soft Stretch at 6:30pm. 

I'm really excited for our new term theme because we will be exploring some of the beautiful myths and stories behind the most foundational yoga postures. This will be a special place to begin if you are new to yoga ~ learning the foundational postures from the wise perspective of these old stories. But it will of course also be a really fun way to deepen your understanding of yoga history, learn more about what yoga's all about, and hone in on your physical and energetic alignment in the poses :)

Please let me know if you would like me to save your space for either class in the new term! Or if you'd like to book in for class this Sunday May 17th, which will be our final practice of the current term, simply send me a message :) You can also contact me with any questions about the new term or check out the 'yoga term' section of my website above.

As with Uddiyana Bandha, which was our theme last week that involved a practice of drawing the belly button back to the spine and up for a strong and centered feeling in our yoga postures, Jalandhara Bandha is a specific neuromuscular engagement that is designed to 'lock' your energy (prana) and channelise it upward. Traditionally, it is practiced in a pranayama (breathing) practice, or in meditation, and it is often used to complete what is called a maha bandha practice, which is when all three bandhas are activated at once ~ pelvic floor lift, naval lift, and chin to chest. This is an advanced hatha yoga technique and not something we will be attempting in class this week! However, I have found that even a baby jalandhara bandha practice can be beneficial in stimulating energy flow around the throat, head, and heart. Fantastic for unlocking creativity, empowering clear expression and communication, and relieving tension or blockages in the throat as preventative care for sickness.

Practically speaking, jalandhara bandha involves lifting the heart and extending the neck before lowering your chin to your chest and squeezing the throat back and closed. It can be practiced with kumbhaka, breath retention, for increased benefits. Just like putting up a boundary in one area of your life can magically cause an unleashing of energy in another area of your life (!), exploring these strong neuromuscular engagements (locks) in the body can help to release a natural state of flow that may enliven and rejuvenate in unexpected ways. We will explore jalandhara bandha very gently this Sunday, engaging in breathwork and neck/shoulder stretches that both open and close the throat, before moving through a practice that will strengthen, tone, direct focus, balance the body, and potentially shift your perspective :) Let me know if you'd like to be there!

P.s. the day outside has suddenly turned lovely again?!

"There is just this dream, this feeling, this urge, this desire. There is seldom any real proof, but the dream lives on...do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery. A mystery draws us in, leads us on, lures us. A duty may numb us out, turn us off, tune us out." Julie Cameron.

Le grá agus buíochas, 

Macha