The Woman's Yoga Book Asana and Pranayama for all
Phases of the Menstrual Cycle
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The
Woman’s Yoga
asana and pranayama
for all phases of the menstrual cycle Book
Written and Illustrated by
Bobby Clennell
Foreword by Geeta S. Iyengar, Author of Yoga: A Gem for Women
Rodmell Press • berkeley, california • 2007
The Woman’s Yoga Book: Asana and Pranayama for All No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
Phases of the Menstrual Cycle, text and illustrations copy- form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
right © 2007 by Bobby Clennell. All rights reserved. photocopying, recording, or by an information storage or re-
trieval system, without written permission from Rodmell Press,
2147 Blake St., Berkeley, CA 94704-2715; (510) 841-3123, (510)
841-3191 (fax), www.rodmellpress.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Printed and bound in China
Clennell, Bobby, 1943- First Edition
The woman’s yoga book : asana and pranayama for all ISBN-10: 1-930485-18-2
phases of the menstrual cycle / written and illustrated by ISBN-13: 978-1-930485-18-1
Bobby Clennell ; foreword by Geena S. Iyengar — 1st ed.
p. cm. 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Includes index.
ISBN 1-930485-18-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) Editor: Linda Cogozzo
1. Yoga—Health aspects—Popular works. 2. Menstrual Associate Editor: Holly Hammond
cycle--Popular works. 3. Menstruation disorders--Popular Indexer: Ty Koontz
works. 4. Women—Health and hygiene—Popular works. Cover and Text Design: Gopa & Ted2, Inc.
I. Title. Author Photographer: Jake Clennell
RA781.7.C58 2007 Lithographer: Kwong Fat Offset Printing Co., Ltd.
613.7'046—dc22 Text set in ITC Garamond
2006038298 Distributed by Publishers Group West
For my mother, Philippa Judd
Acknowledgments
T his book is based on the work of my
beloved yoga teacher, B. K. S. Iyengar,
who is the source of my yoga knowledge.
A heartfelt thank you to Mr. Iyengar’s daughter,
Geeta Iyengar, for her awe-inspiring teaching and
little literary fairy dust when I needed it. Lindsey
and Hisayo Kushida took hundreds of photo-
graphs of me, on which I based the illustrations.
A huge bouquet of red roses to each of you! Thank
you also to my sons, Miles and Jake, for their love
especially for her dedicated and innovative work and encouragement.
in the field of women’s yoga. For assistance with individual chapters, I ack-
This book could not have been written were it nowledge Frank Lipman, M.D., L.Ac.; Maryanne
not for the hard work of some talented people. I Travaglioni, L.Ac.; Harriet Beinfield, L.Ac.; and
would like to thank my publishers, Linda Cogozzo Efrem Korngold, L.Ac., O.M.D. I also thank Mar-
and Donald Moyer. Linda helped me collect and cel Pick, R.N.C., M.S.N., N.P., and Leslie Boyde,
organize my thoughts, and with patience and per- M.D., for their help. Thank you to Roberta Atti for
severance made the writing and editing process her wisdom and advice on the healing power of
seem painless and seamless. Thank you to Mary food.
Talbot, who helped me find my voice in the early I owe much to my friends and yoga students:
stages of writing, and to Lara Owen and Vivien Peter Simmons, Rob Gagnon, Joan Snyder, Mag-
Goldman who contributed to the preliminary gie Cammer, and Diane von Furstenberg. Thank
editing process. I am deeply indebted to Iyengar you to the many fine Iyengar Yoga teachers who
Yoga teachers Joan White, Chris Saudek, and Lois helped in so many ways: Brooke Myers, Jean Marie
Steinberg for their insights. Lois allowed me to Derrick, Yvonne Decock, Alison Pomroy, Sally
spend inordinate amounts of time picking her Rutskey, Carrie Owerko, and Rajiv Mehta. Thank
brain. This book would not be as coherent as it you to the late Penny Nield-Smith, Silvia Prescott,
is without her help. Mary Dunn, John Schumacher, Jawahar Bangera,
Special thanks to my husband Lindsey, for his Gabriella Giubilaro, and Stephanie Quirk.
love and unconditional support. With his long And last but not least, a big thank you to my
experience as a yoga teacher and his unique abil- yoga students, who give me much more than they
ities as a writer, he was always ready to offer a could ever know.
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Contents
Foreword by Geeta S. Iyengar xi
Introduction 1
1. Ancient Teachings and Modern Concepts 5
2. From Menarche to Menopause: Cycles of a Woman’s Life 9
3. How Yoga Can Help Women 15
4. Starting the Journey 21
5. Standing Poses and a Flowing Sequence: Building a Support System 31
6. Sitting Poses and Twists: Finding Your Center 61
7. Seated Forward Bends: Calming the Mind 87
8. Reclining Poses: Restoring Lost Energy 99
9. Inverted Poses: Balancing the System 121
10. Back Bends: Opening the Heart 139
11. Pranayama: Exploring the Space Within 151
12. During Your Period: Effortless Practice 161
13. For the Days After Your Period: New Beginnings 165
14. Breath Awareness: Focusing the Mind 169
15. Irritability, Tension, and Mood Swings: What Your Body Is Saying 175
16. Migraine Headaches: Releasing the Pressure 179
17. Bloating and Breast Tenderness: Easing Symptoms of Congestion 185
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18. Insomnia: Calming the Nerves and Inducing Sleep 191
19. Abdominal Cramps and Low Back Pain: Soothing Poses 197
20. Excessive and Prolonged Bleeding: Stabilizing the System 203
21. Scanty Periods: Strengthening the System 211
22. Absence of Menstruation: Getting Back to Normal 219
23. Irregular Menstruation: Reestablishing the Rhythm 227
Resources 234
From the Publisher 234
About the Author 235
Index 236
x the womenís yoga book \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Foreword
By Geeta S. Iyengar
T he popularity of yoga is increasing
day by day, and it is delights my heart that
many more people are embracing yoga
today, as compared to the past. There was a time
when many felt that yoga was meant only for
in my life. I could sense that the practice of yoga
was developing a new personality in me by bring-
ing inner balance. As I began teaching yoga, these
imprints surfaced, so I could help and educate
others.
recluses. However, today they understand the Teaching yoga in the1960s was an adventure.
importance of yoga in daily life. There once was Though the women were keen to learn, they had
a mindset that yoga was meant exclusively for health problems. They wanted natural remedies
men. People realize now that this ancient art and instead of painkillers. At the time, it was not
philosophy was also a way of life for women of widely known that many of their problems,
the Vedic period. whether physical, psychological, or emotional,
Yoga has a great potency to yield physical and are related to menstruation and hormonal
mental health, which is essential for women. changes. I understood that link, and my method
However, women should not forget its spiritual of teaching helped the women, though it took the
depth. The ancestral dynasty of women in yoga female students a long time to adopt this view.
proves that besides physical health, they also Research today proves this link. Hence, a woman
strived for spiritual health to enrich their lives. should respect her femininity and practice yoga
Their endeavor did not make them turn their accordingly.
backs on their worldly and family responsibilities. Bobby Clennell rightly focuses on the practice
This balance has to be struck by women of today, of yoga during the different phases of menstrua-
when the modern way of life makes them forget tion, so this book is very useful for a woman from
their womanhood. her menarche to menopause. Women will find
The first stage of womanhood is menarche. In answers to many problems they might face dur-
olden days, this event was celebrated as a girl’s ing that time of life. Each chapter explains the
second birth; there was a naming ceremony and benefits of practicing the asana, while also cau-
her horoscope (birth chart) was drawn. Thus her tioning the practitioner about what not to do and
life was molded such that she could improve her when not to do.
physical, moral, mental, and spiritual health. The journey of yoga starts with standing
I grew up witnessing the importance of yoga asanas, stabilizes one in sitting asanas, creates
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mobility in lateral extensions, settles one in for- pranayama. Bobby takes the reader through this
ward extensions, brings restoration in supine entire journey. Her clear illustrations further
asanas, refreshes one by bringing inner balance enhance the value of the book.
in inversions, rejuvenates the brain and nerves in I hope it will guide one and all.
backward extensions, and energizes one through
xii the womenís yoga book \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Introduction
O f all the changes that have taken
place throughout the last century, per-
haps the most radical have been those
in the lives of women. For the first time in his-
tory, many women in the West expect to take their
pregnancy and lactation provided respite from
the monthly period, but women now have far
fewer children than their foremothers, and many
do not have children at all. This change, plus the
demands that women face in the modern world,
place alongside men in the professional arena. may be forcing the female reproductive system
But as women’s opportunities and successes have to adapt in unhealthy ways. Whether we have
expanded, their happiness and well-being have children or not, women are focused on “keeping
not always kept pace. In fact, women may be pay- up.” Listening to internal needs falls low on the
ing a price for “having it all.” list of priorities, and inevitably many women
Many women find that the accelerated pace of adopt unhealthy lifestyles, hardly noticing what
life threatens to undermine their health, erode is happening in our bodies.
their sense of self, and shake their spiritual cen- Some women ignore the very thing that makes
ter. The pressure of living up to expectations adds us different from men: cyclical hormonal rhythms.
to the stress of a hectic schedule. This stress, along And for all of our advances in social equality, atti-
with other aspects of modern life, such as envi- tudes toward menstruation are only slightly more
ronmental pollutants and junk food, can con- enlightened than in the past. The once prevailing
tribute to the breakdown of the immune system notion that a menstruating woman was unclean
and disturbances of the hormone system, putting has been replaced by an attitude of neglect, both
women at risk for problems such as fibroid by society and by women themselves. On one
tumors, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and men- hand, women may have an increased number of
strual irregularities. menstrual periods; on the other hand, we are no
Without a doubt, the pattern of menstruation longer encouraged to think of menstruation as a
has been altered by postindustrial life. Because significant or spiritual event. There is virtually no
today’s woman starts her period earlier and has remaining tradition in Western culture that
fewer babies, she can have between 350 and 400 acknowledges the power and mystery of the men-
menstrual periods throughout her lifetime, as strual cycle. Many women’s magazines, the bell-
opposed to the 100 periods that most women wethers of contemporary female culture, do not
experienced two hundred years ago. At one time, encourage us to rest or meditate at this time.
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Instead, we are told to go to the gym, highlight achieve physical strength, emotional stability,
our hair, and get over it. confidence, and courage. When my period came
How can we as women rediscover our unique around each month, I made sure that there was
creative power and live holistically without com- time to practice a calming restorative sequence,
promising our recently won and crucially impor- regardless of the other demands on me.
tant place in society? In The Woman’s Yoga Book, This sequence, which was specific to menstru-
I do not ask you to return to the repressive atti- ation, took approximately an hour and a half. I
tudes of the prefeminist era, or to abandon your practiced it every day of my period. Soon I dis-
independence for a life of continual pregnancy covered that if in addition to this I remained as
and childbirth. I suggest instead that feminism still and as quiet as possible after work on the
take into consideration the biological reality of days of the heaviest bleeding, then things went
womanhood. My intention is to offer all women— better for me throughout the rest of the month.
whether they have children or not, whether they A few years earlier a vegetarian diet and the mac-
have careers or not—the teachings of a wise, age- robiotic movement had awakened me from the
old system of healing that is ours for the taking: stodginess of traditional English cooking and the
yoga. sterility of frozen fish fingers! My early cooking
experiments set the groundwork for my develop-
ing interest in how everything that I did influ-
My Personal Journey enced my body–mind. My monthly yoga ritual not
I discovered yoga while living in London. It was only helped me overcome menstrual discomfort
1973, and I had two young sons, Miles and Jake. but also (along with the rest of my practice)
Propelled by a friend’s enthusiastic recommenda- helped to broaden my perspective on my place
tions, my husband, Lindsey, and I took our first in the world beyond my day-to-day concerns.
yoga class. It was with Penny Nield-Smith, in a Throughout the years, I have kept up with my
community center in Covent Garden. We were yoga practice, refining it to meet my needs. I have
hooked immediately. It was only later that we returned to India, time and again, to study with
learned that this kind of yoga was called Iyengar the Iyengars. I have found myself increasingly
Yoga, after B. K. S. Iyengar, author of Light on focused on women’s issues in yoga. Thousands
Yoga. In 1975 I made my first journey to India to of women practice yoga today, often with the
study with Iyengar himself, his daughter Geeta S. knowledge that keeping their bodies supple and
Iyengar, author of Yoga: A Gem for Women, and free of tension is a good antidote to stiffness and
his son, Prashant Iyengar. My life was changed the aging effects of stress. But yoga is not only
by this experience. In particular, I was absolutely positive for flexibility and relaxation; it is also a
enthralled by Geeta Iyengar’s insights and wis- powerful healing tool. Many of the asana (yoga
dom about women and yoga. I began teaching in poses) and pranayama (breathing practices) act as
1976, when Penny handed over the weekly tonics and regulators for a woman’s reproductive
Covent Garden class to me. system. As a yoga teacher, I have observed how
As a young mother juggling the demands of women’s lives have been transformed as a result
family and work in a changing and sometimes of practicing yoga with attention to their cycles.
overwhelming world, yoga gave me the means to The cyclic nature of women’s physiology binds
2 the womenís yoga book \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
us inextricably to the natural world, and when Chapter 3 explains how Iyengar Yoga is par-
this bond is weakened, humankind as a whole ticularly useful for women and which asana and
suffers. A yoga practice that includes attention to pranayama work best at what stage of the
the rhythmic patterns of our female energy can monthly cycle. Chapter 4 explores the fundamen-
strengthen our connection to the cycles of nature tals of setting up a regular yoga practice. Chap-
and can, in a small way, help to restore balance ters 5 through 11 give step-by-step instructions in
to the planet. With intelligent yoga practice, a asana and pranayama and how women should
woman becomes an active participant in her own practice them. Chapters 12 through 14 describe
health care. By reclaiming the power to heal our- practice sequences to keep your menstrual cycle
selves, we also reclaim the power to heal others. healthy and keep you attuned to your nature as
a woman.
Finally, chapters 15 through 23 present se-
About This Book quences that are specifically designed for differ-
The Woman’s Yoga Book is a comprehensive ent menstrual problems, ranging from irritability
approach to practicing yoga to balance, regulate, to excessive menstrual flow. You can refer back
and honor your menstrual cycle, whether you are to chapters 5 through 11 at any time, for the
new to yoga or a continuing student. Chapter 1 detailed instructions on any the poses presented
presents an overview of the history of menstrual in these sequences. At the back of the book is a
beliefs and practices, examining how modern comprehensive list of resources to aid your yoga
concepts developed and how ancient traditions practice.
from profeminine cultures can help us regain a I invite you to use The Woman’s Yoga Book to
healthy perspective on this most essential of body help you practice yoga in ways that meet your
rhythms. Chapter 2 covers the basic physiology needs and to empower you with the means to
of menstruation and discusses the relationship balance your menstrual cycle throughout the
between physiological events and emotional month. I wish you much joy and comfort from
changes during the month. your yoga practice.
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