Beginner’s Mediation & Mindful Stretching is a new offering from Hong Kong-born, London-based yoga instructor Nadia Narain.  The DVD provides a variety of short, meditative-based practices–some incorporating very simple yoga moments, others more focused on stillness–as a means to foster relaxation.

        Narain teaches these practices alone via voiceover in a minimalist studio.  The routines are listed on the Main Menu as follows:  Play All – Introduction – Breathing (5 mins) – Stress Release (5 mins) – Energizing (10 mins) – Stretching (22 mins) – Thankfulness (15 mins) – Savasana (8 mins) – Audio Setup.  I have provided some details below.

BREATHING

In this opening routine, Narain provides instruction for focusing on the breath.  This leads into a basic meditation repeating the words “I’m releasing tension in my body” on inhale and “I’m releasing tension in my mind” on exhale.

STRESS RELEASE

This practice involves a simple breath focus.

ENERGIZING

This routine incorporates movement, beginning seated with neck rolls, torso rolls, cat cow, and a lateral stretch/twist.  Narain concludes with about 5 minutes of seated meditation, incorporating the phrase “I am here, I am open, please show me the way.”

STRETCHING

Here Narain moves through gentle yoga stretches.  She begins lying with the feet in a butterfly position; after relaxing here with the arms overhead, she moves the legs in a windshield wiper pattern, resting one ankle on the opposite knee.  Additional poses include reclined hamstring stretch, reclined twist, seated head-to-knee, seated butterfly, and seated forward bend.  Narain concludes this segment with resting the attention on the breath.

THANKFULNESS

This segment again incorporates gentle movement, this time beginning standing for energy-gathering breaths and roll downs.  Coming to the floor, Narain moves through child’s pose, pelvic lifts, and a double knee reclined twist.  The last six minutes of this routine are spent in seated meditation, with a focus on thanking various people in one’s life and a simple repetition of the phrase “thank you, thank you.”

SAVASANA

Here Narain leads a guided savasana.  After bringing the focus once again back to the breath, she moves the viewer through breath ratios, beginning with a 4-4 count (4 counts inhale, 4 counts exhale), then moving to a 4-6 ratio and finally a 4-8 pattern.

        This gentle, relaxing DVD is ideal for anyone who would like to foster a greater sense of calm and to begin to incorporate mindfulness into daily life.  Although I am a yoga instructor, I struggle with establishing a regular meditation practice; I enjoyed how Narain combined meditation with movement, making this practice more accessible to most.

 

© 2017 Beth Cholette

 

Beth Cholette, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist who provides psychotherapy to college students.