yoga while menstruating

I wrote the other day about Yoga Journal's 21 day challenge.  Wow, what a great collection of fabulous free videos, offering terrific variety.  However, I am going to need to wait to do them until a few days from now, because right now I am on my cycle.  And it's important for reproductive health to not do an overly rigorous yoga practice while menstruating, especially the heaviest days of the flow.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't do yoga while menstruating.  You should, just another kind.  In Yoga For a Healthy Menstrual Cycle they lay out a nice practice sequence for menstruation (as well as one for shrinking fibroids).  However, messy me couldn't find my copy yesterday, so I pulled out a little book that I had bought awhile ago but never delved into, called Luna Yoga.  Very gentle and relaxing, it was just the thing, combined with a couple of poses from a menstrual yoga page I found online recently.  That page suggested that by doing the proper releasing poses during your flow that it would help shrink fibroids.

Today, since that book still hasn't turned up, plan to do this menses series from the Yoga Circle site.  It's really excellent.  I take this with me when I travel, as it's also perfect for when you wake up in the middle of the night with jet lag.

To accompany this kind of practice, I put on my wish list a Lisa Thiel CD recommended in the Luna Yoga book.  Today in the meantime plan to use one of my old favorites, Natural Thing by Poi Dog Pondering.  Sensual and relaxing.