Nabhi Kriya is not for the faint hearted.
It focuses on the core and lower body, a huge issue for most office based women whose core strength has been shot to pieces by sitting sedentary at a desk for up to or over 10 hours a day.
It also tackles digestion, again a huge issue for working women who are literally carrying their stress and anxiety as a constant knot in the stomach.
It works on the solar plexus – such a tender place for women in business even when we are not aware of it. We get lost in a haze of endless productivity, endless check lists, all the balls in the air, but not quite remembering why we are doing it all in the first place or knowing how to change or simplify things.
Nabhi Kriya karate chops through it all, the belly fat, the sedentary core, the lack of a genuine sense of direction in all the busyness, it completely detoxifies the solar plexus. In short the practice is not for the faint hearted, but highly effective.
I would love to say I came to the practice due to a new found self-realisation but no. I am due to attend a yoga retreat for my birthday in April and I’ll be damned if I am the only one there who cannot lift their legs off the mat which is the present situation as I have essentially no core strength. I may as well get some use out of being a typical corporate Type A overachiever.
Like me, you know you need Nabhi Kriya if:
- You are sitting at a desk for extended periods of time.
- You have problems with the plank or kneeling positions in yoga.
- Your digestion is not the best.
- You are busy but spacey – with all the checklists you still can’t quite seem to see your way through or get into your flow and need a sense of direction.
My Nabhi Kriya would bring tears to your eyes it so bad.
For those of you beginning with the practice or with no absolutely no core strength I am with you in the trenches.
Nabhi Kriya – YouTube Tutorials
I am on a 40 day goal and these are my recommendations for YouTube tutorials:
3HO Foundation
So I have a bit of a tortured relationship with 3HO I am not going to lie. I’ve done my time in convent school and sometimes I find the organisation a bit too pious for my liking – I am talking about the European branch, I cannot speak to other/related branches. However to be fair, their training tends to be very good.
KIMILLA
I also have a love hate relationship with Kimilla (yes there is a trend – anything to do with any form of exercise makes me petulant and want to stick out my tongue. I have absolutely no idea why this is but it’s been that way since school).
Sometimes the image of Kimilla gate crashing the 3HO pristine, all yogis clad in white, European Yoga festival in her bright blue leggings and barely there yellow bikini top and freaking the hell out of everyone makes me giggle and therefore happily able to get through my Nabhi Kriya.
Other times I’m like “really Kimilla – its 5am and a minor miracle that I am putting myself through this torture at this ungodly hour – could you at least try to look a bit more pained when you are on your fifteenth minute of your leg lifts.”
NIRVANA ANAND
For the ‘this is more painful and less enticing than a leg wax’ mornings (mercifully short)
This last one I haven’t actually watched yet however it’s less than 18 minutes so I am saving it for my “I just so could not be arsed” days of my forty day challenge.
Don’t abandon the practice solely because you feel you can’t keep up / don’t have the time. As stated earlier, you are in good company – I can’t keep up and don’t have the time.
Set this brilliant little timer to whatever you can do and just keep it going / build it up. The free app allows you to set times for each of part of the Kriya to whatever you can handle and you can play your own music.
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