Days 3-5: Thunderbolt Pose, Chest Breathing, and Full Lotus Pose
Practice time: 5-10 minutes.
1. Bend your knees and kneel on the mat, with your lower legs and the tops of your feet flat on the ground.
2. Bring your knees together, touch your big toes, and separate your heels.
3. Straighten your back and sit your buttocks between your two separated heels.
Slimming and detoxifying effects
It can strengthen the muscles of the waist, back, and neck, and is especially helpful in slenderizing and stretching the thigh muscle fibers.
Combining diaphragmatic breathing with abdominal breathing helps promote digestion, stimulates intestinal peristalsis, and eliminates waste from the body, thereby boosting immunity.
1. Any sitting posture. Lie on your back or sit, and inhale deeply into your lungs, expanding your ribs outward and upward.
2. Relax as you exhale, bringing your ribs down and inward.
The process of chest breathing mainly involves the expansion and contraction of the chest cavity, while the abdomen should remain flat.
Supine relaxation
1. Lie on your back with your palms facing up, legs naturally apart, and your whole body relaxed.
2. When exhaling, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and feel your body sink naturally.
3. Let your awareness linger on different parts of your body and relax them in sequence: toes → soles of feet → insteps → ankles → calves → knees → thighs → groin → hips → waist → abdomen → chest → shoulders → arms → elbows → wrists → palms → fingers → neck → chin → lips → teeth → cheeks → nose → eyes → center of the forehead → forehead → scalp → back of the head → back → spine → waist → hips → legs → feet, finally returning to your toes.
4. Finally, focus your awareness on your breathing and take deep, slow abdominal breaths.
Slimming and detoxifying effects
It strengthens and purifies the respiratory system, and increases blood oxygen levels.
It promotes the balance of various systems in the body and facilitates the elimination of toxins.
By engaging all parts of the body in exercise, the body becomes more coordinated and flexible, thereby balancing the mind and body.
Day 4: Listen to your inner voice
Whether in daily life or during yoga practice, negative emotions such as worry, boredom, and even loneliness will arise from time to time. Worry, boredom, and emptiness all express a certain "inner voice".
If you are upset and lack discernment at this moment, you will choose strong stimulation to cover up these feelings-greedy enjoyment of food is one such way.
The fourth day of practice helps practitioners better listen to and understand their inner voice and focus on their inner self.
Nowadays, many people are no longer able to listen to their inner voice. They are trapped in the chaos and trivialities of life and cannot extricate themselves. They become irritable due to work pressure, have fewer and fewer opportunities to travel with family and friends, and are indifferent even when surrounded by greenery.
Listen to your inner voice, bring the fresh air of nature back into your life, and embark on a journey with a joyful heart-a relaxing spiritual journey.
As nature gradually fades from our hearts, listening to the voice within is like bringing the purest scenery back to the metropolis, capturing the beauty of life's little moments along the way.
This purification process is most effective at eliminating psychological toxins and is key to successful detoxification and weight loss.
1. Sit on a yoga mat with your legs stretched out in front of you.
2. Bend your left leg and place your left foot under your right thigh.
3. Bend your right knee and place your right leg on top of your left thigh.
4. Keep your shoulders and back straight, tuck your chin in, place your hands together in front of your body with your thumbs touching to form the meditation mudra.
Slimming and detoxifying effects
You can place a small cushion under your buttocks to help maintain stability and comfort.
Maintain this posture while breathing and focusing your practice. As you become more proficient, you can gradually increase the time to 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or even longer.
1. Sit in any position, slowly and deeply inhale, keeping your chest still, and slowly expand your abdomen outwards completely, feeling the air filling your abdomen.
2. After expanding your abdomen, allow your chest cavity to expand naturally. Expand your chest cavity upwards and outwards as much as possible, while your abdomen naturally contracts inwards. Slightly shrug your collarbones and shoulders, continuing to fill the top of your lungs with air. At this time, the rest of your body should be relaxed.
3. When exhaling, relax your shoulders, collarbone, upper chest and abdomen. Then, contract your chest inward and downward, while simultaneously contracting your abdomen inward as much as possible to expel waste gas from your body.
Slimming and detoxifying effects
Combining seated exercises with these techniques can help slim the abdomen.
It strengthens and purifies the respiratory system, increases oxygen intake, and brings the fresh, natural scent back into your life.
It balances the nervous and endocrine systems, making the mind calmer and more insightful.
When practicing correctly, you will sweat slightly, especially on your head. This indicates that your body is entering a good cycle, and toxins are being slowly expelled from your body through breathing, thus purifying your body.
Day 5: Overcoming self-criticism and getting to know your true self.
As practice deepens, practitioners will explore various characteristics of their mind and body more thoroughly, at which point self-criticism can easily arise.
This book argues that self-criticism subconsciously damages self-esteem and a sense of worth, and is itself a form of poison that should be replaced by self-love and self-acceptance.
Self-acceptance and self-love do not mean ignoring one's own problems, but rather establishing a more constructive motivational model for progress.
By practicing the content of Day 5, practitioners begin to accept all their emotions and thoughts, learn to care for their own hearts, enhance their capacity for love, and continue their detoxification and weight loss journey in the embrace of love.
When you can accept yourself with love, you will naturally "step out" and look at yourself and the situation around you from a third-person perspective, thereby recognizing the truth of the matter.
In this state of "stepping back and looking at things from a different perspective," you break free from the constraints of reality because you know what your body needs, and then eat, live, and exercise according to those true needs...
Although it may outwardly appear to be the same healthy approach promoted in books, you are acting according to your own needs, happily and rationally, without being "enslaved" by the rigid rules of the books.
Keep your shoulders and back straight.
Slimming and detoxifying effects
It strengthens the muscles of the waist, back, and neck, and beautifies the curves of the human torso. It also slims and stretches the muscle fibers of the thighs and calves.
Combining breathing techniques can clear the mind and soothe the soul.
1. Place the index and middle fingers of your left hand between your eyebrows and keep this position unchanged throughout the exercise.
2. Place your thumb next to your left nostril and your ring finger next to your right nostril. Close your left nostril with your thumb, and inhale through your right nostril first, then exhale, maintaining the same frequency as usual, for 5 breaths in and out.
3. Release your thumb and press your right nostril with your ring finger, inhaling and exhaling through your left nostril. Repeat 5 times.
4. Breathe through each nostril five times in sequence, which is called one cycle.
Slimming and detoxifying effects
Combining seated posture exercises can help beautify the curves of the human torso and strengthen the respiratory system.
It can stabilize your emotions, eliminate distractions, and allow you to be more forgiving of yourself.
Candlelight Gaze
1. Place a lit candle (or other item of your choice) about 50 centimeters in front of you.
2. Sit in any position, gaze intently at the candlelight, and remain focused.
3. Close your eyes and imagine the image of candlelight in your mind, focusing your attention firmly on the imagined candlelight. If your mind wanders or becomes distracted, you can open your eyes to look at the candlelight, and then close your eyes again to observe it internally.
Slimming and detoxifying effects
It helps correct certain eye defects, strengthens and stabilizes the nervous system, cultivates the ability to concentrate, and unleashes the power of the mind.
Combining seated posture exercises can help beautify the curves of the human torso.
Observe the candlelight repeatedly until you can fully imagine its image when you close your eyes. Focus your mind on the candlelight and your mind will be as clear as a mirror.
When you are unable to concentrate or your attention is scattered, you can open your eyes to look at the candlelight, and then close your eyes to look inward.
Lifestyle suggestions for days 1-5
In the first 5 days, you don't need to rush into high-intensity physical exercises. Start by changing small details in your daily life to lay a good foundation for the following exercises and also to gain a healthy state of mind.
*Eating to cheer yourself up*
Supplement with vitamins and get plenty of sunshine. Scholars at the University of Washington School of Nursing believe that adequate vitamin intake and sunlight exposure can boost energy. The school conducted a trial involving 112 women with mild depression who engaged in 20 minutes of brisk walking five days a week, while also taking vitamin supplements and extending their daily sun exposure.
After 8 weeks, almost everyone's frustration had eased, and 25% of them had lost weight, even though they hadn't deliberately dieted.
Join a weight loss organization. These organizations usually have experts to provide relevant advice, and you can also make "comrades-in-arms" with common topics and goals. This can not only relieve loneliness, but also help you stick to it in the long run, killing two birds with one stone.
*Eating with worry: Learn to relax*
Go for a brisk walk. When feeling worried or anxious, try a 5-minute brisk walk. Brisk walking increases serotonin levels in the blood, improving mood and effectively relieving anxiety. Just 5 minutes can suppress negative emotions and the urge to overeat-why not give it a try?
Learn to relax. A recent study from the Department of Health and Science at the University of Oregon found that overweight women who relax daily through various methods, such as deep breathing, yoga, or journaling, can lose an average of about 5 kilograms after a year and a half without having to diet.
Be mindful of when you're most likely to overeat. Studies suggest that people are most prone to binge eating in the early morning and late afternoon, as these are typically when stress and tension are at their peak. Therefore, to control your diet, it's best to stay as far away from the kitchen and any other places where food is readily available as possible during these times.
*Eating out of boredom: Choosing time-consuming foods*
Choose foods that take time to prepare. If you feel like eating because you have nothing to do, choose foods that require a lot of time and effort to eat, such as nuts that need to be peeled. This will make you eat less and more aware of how much you've already consumed, preventing you from eating endlessly.
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy. It has been proven that there is a strong link between obesity and lack of sleep, so the wise choice is to go to bed early and get at least 7 hours of sleep each night.