Cure a hangover fast with the help of yoga. That’s right; we have a sequence of exercises today to hopefully nurture you if you’ve had a couple of too many to drink the night before. Don’t be so hard on yourself. We’re here to balance the body, reenergize and revitalize the system, and hopefully get rid of some of those toxins so you can enjoy your day. So get in something comfy, and let’s do a little yoga. So we’re going to crawl out of bed, off the couch, and onto our mats. And we’re going to begin today in extended child’s pose. So the knees will come as wide as the mat. The two big toes will come together. And we’ll slowly, and today is all about nice and slow, begin to extend the arms out. Keep the palms nice and wide. And release the forehead to the mat. So move nice and slow here. And let’s make sure to right away connect to the breath.

And so you can modify the sequence depending on how you feel today, depending on how many you had last night. Just kidding. And make sure that you’re listening to your body, paying attention to your breath, and of course, finding what feels good.

Cure a Hangover Fast With the Help of Yoga

So here we are in an extended child’s pose. If you can’t quite find what feels good in an extended child’s pose, maybe the knees are talking to you, or the hips, you can sit up nice and tall. Don’t worry about the shape, but rather bringing the forehead to the earth, finding a little pressure here in the third eye. And then again, using the breath for a little healing here. So we have a couple of options in this cooling posture. If you have a headache, which you might, you can rock… A couple of things, you can rock the head a little side to side here. This feels good. Massaging the brow bones. And stimulating that intuitive chakra area of the body. If you’re anything like me, at this moment right now, you’re going, “God, why did I do this to myself?” So I invite you just to let go of any toxic thoughts.

Let Go of Any Toxic

We have enough toxins in the body already. So just let go of any toxic thoughts and give yourself this little hangover yoga time to just be in the moment, find your breath, and heal. Get through it. So basically, beating yourself up doesn’t really help. And I need to make my own note of that. I’ve also put little essential oil on this Kleenex. You can also rub a little on your mat. I’ve done a little peppermint here and a little lavender. And sometimes that’s nice, too, for a headache. As you bring your forehead to the mat, and again, maybe find a little rocking.

So wherever you are, you’re just going to take a couple of quiet moments here with the breath. So again, you can be kind of up on your haunches here; you can practice with essential oil. And if it’s too much, you start to feel a little sick; you can come up on the elbows, interlace the fingertips, lift your chin, and breathe. Just take a couple more breaths here. And if you’re super-duper, duper hungover, you might stay here for the rest of this practice. Or you might try this out in the morning and then realize it’s not quite the time.

So you might stay here and then return to the rest of this sequence later. We’ll take a few more breaths here. Then nice and slow, nurturing the body through each transition here, we’ll slide it back up. And this, man, this really does the trick for me. It’s inexpensive, you know. One bottle of lavender, peppermint, or whatever you fancy will last quite a long time. And as I mentioned before, you can just smear it on your mat, too, if you’re feeling crazy. Okay. We’ll put that to the side.

Find a Little Lift in the Heart

That was nice. It’s lingering on my forehead. Super nice. Okay. So I’m going to spread the palms wide. I’m going to come on all fours slowly. No hovering cat today. I’m going to walk the knees in. Cross the ankles. And slowly slide on through to seated. So you can also swing the legs to one side. As we come through, you might be feeling it here. I’m acting right now. So this is good. I’m not hungover. It’s pure gold acting. You might come through. And we’re just going to send the legs out long. And we’re just going to take a couple of breaths here, leaning in like a swimming pool posture. This is how you hang out at the pool, so you relax the ankles. Now the shoulders are shrugging up here. So one thing we are going to do is find a little lift in the heart.

And then we can teeter-totter our throbbing heads back and forth. Hey oh. First, hey, oh, of the new season. Teeter totter your throbbing head. Okay. Keep the heart lifted. And again, if this is too much, no biggie. Just stay here, lifting your heart, letting your legs relax, and revitalizing the system with a couple of nice, long, smooth deep breaths. If you’re caught up on, oh, are my fingertips pointing in, pointing out? Not today, my friends. Just chill. So wherever the hands go naturally, find a lift in the heart. And you might begin to draw a couple of circles with the nose. Sending some energy to the neck and shoulders. I always feel like my lymphatic system starts talking to me after I’ve had a couple of the next morning. More on that on the blog. All right. One more deep breath here, my friends. And we slowly release. Nothing fancy. Okay. We’ll come onto the sit bones here. And now, we’re going to begin to activate the legs a little bit here, firming the tops of the thighbones down. Now, we’ll crawl the palms forward.

Be Really, Really Gentle

And I’m just giving a little massage to the lower belly here—little gas. We’re also going to do a little head-to-knee pose. And so, this will look a little different for everyone. Honestly, guys, if you’re super hungover, it’s going to look like this for you. But breathe here. Breathe. Otherwise, you might crawl a little deeper, getting a nice forward fold here, Paschimottanasana. And if you’re really trying to get the juices flowing, you might massage the feet here. And you might play with a little wave of the spine. Inhaling as you rise up. And exhaling forward fold. All right. Wherever you are, one more breath here, then we’ll tuck the chin into the chest and slowly roll it up. Enjoy. Fingertips are grazing the tops of the legs here. And this time, we’re going to catch that right knee, bend it as you lift your right foot up. So we have one leg in, one leg out here. Coming for a little twist. So depending on, again, how you’re feeling, this could be really, really gentle.

And Gentle Would Be Lots of Space, About a Fist’s Worth of Space Between the Heel and That Inner Thigh

And just a gentle hug of that right knee as you turn past your right shoulder. So turn to your right. Maybe you come here; maybe you stay here. Consider the spine as you inhale, lift and lengthen. Sit up nice and tall. And exhale twist. To go a little deeper, we might cross the right foot over that left leg. Press into the ball joint of that big front toe. Sit up nice and tall again, and find it here. We’ll take a couple of breaths here. If you were playing with the essential oil, it would be nice. You can smell it as you breathe in. And journeying into your twist on the way out. So we’re massaging those internal organs. We are releasing toxins. I mean, this is just obviously anytime in your practice. It’s so good for the liver. So take a couple more breaths here. Relax your shoulders down, my friends. Go ahead and close your eyes.

Remember to Breathe Properly

You can breathe out through your mouth. If you’re inspired to take a nice lion’s breath, exhale with your tongue out. Let’s take one more nice, deep breath in. And on your exhale, unravel slowly back to the center. And we’ll switch, nice and slow. Take your time. The left knee comes up this time. And then again, you have options here. You can keep a lot of space if you’re feeling a little nauseous, I think they call it.

Just chill here. Chill here, chill here, chill here. Sit up nice and tall when you’re ready. And then eventually find it. If you’re past that point and you’re ready to go a little deeper, go ahead and cross that left foot on over, sit up nice and tall, and breathe deeply as we literally wring out the liver. Wring out the toxins. Again, I tend to be a little hard on myself if I get accidentally hungover. So use this time. This is about self-love. This is about moving forward. This is about living, learning, and moving on—couple more breaths. I should say that if you want to go a little deeper, too, you can, of course, bring the outer edge of that right hand to the outer edge of the left leg.

Just Go a Little Deeper Here

Just go a little deeper here. Listen to your body, careful not to crank it. A little goes a long way, for sure. Great. We’ll take one more breath. And exhale again. Unravel it back to the center. We’re going to take a quick moment here to extend the legs out long. Inhale, reach the fingertips up and overhead. And exhale, lion’s breath, tongue out as you float the fingertips down. Great. Okie-Doke. So now we’re going to bring the soles of the feet in, knees nice and wide, for a little butterfly. Opening the hips. If you went dancing last night, maybe the legs are a little tired, the hips are tired, or tight, or something else… I just realized, hey, oh, this is getting really inappropriate. I’m sorry. Grab the ankles. Sit up nice and tall. Stretching those hips is all I’m saying—deep breath in as you lift your heart. Stay here, my friends. Or if you have a headache, drop the chin to the chest, and breathe into the back of the neck. Shoulder blades are drawing down the backside. And then, as always, you can find a little movement here. If that feels good, you can forward fold if that feels awesome.

Otherwise, nice heavy head here as we relax. Shoulders down, breathe into the back of the neck. Relax your jaw, and close your eyes. And we’ll go ahead and fill three nice long smooth deep breaths here. Then we’ll bat the eyelashes open. And now, we have two options. We can first head straight to a flat back position. Or, if you’d like to fit in, if you’d like to get up on your feet, so if this is an option, if you’d like to get up on your feet, you can slowly plant the feet and come into a forward fold from this nice lowered position. So if you’re like, no. Go ahead and transition now, straight to flat back. And we’ll meet up in a second. Otherwise, you might come into this squat here. And find your breath. As you slowly tuck the chin into the chest, press into the feet, and roll up into a nice standing forward fold.

So Uttanasana Here

And this can be with the feet nice and wide. You can even turn the toes out a little bit if that feels good. You can grab, clasp the elbows here, grab the elbows, rock a little side to side. Keeping the feet nice and wide. And here we take, again, some nice, long, cooling breaths. As you find a little movement, relax the weight of the shoulders, the elbows down.

And you can mix and match here. I encourage you to avoid this kind of static pose here like this. So tight and awful, especially if you’re hungover. So, soften it up. We’ll take a couple more breaths here. So this might seem a little counterintuitive if you have a headache, but this is nice, cooling, and calming. And again, if you have to skip it, skip it today. Just know that this is there, this nice, simple forward fold. Take a deep breath through your nose. And exhale out through the mouth. Great. We’re going to transition out of this back the way we came. And then slowly, come to meet our friends in the flat back position. Go ahead and take a full-body stretch here. And on an exhale, we’ll hug the right knee into the chest. Keep the left leg extended out—wind-relieving pose. We have a video just for this. So we squeeze the right knee in first and extend through the left leg. And you can find a little movement here, my friends.

An option is to relax the shoulders down and slowly peel the head, the neck, and the shoulders up. Nose to the knee. It’s not really important for us to touch nose to knee here. Otherwise, I would do that. But it’s about finding space in the spine and compression in the lower belly here. So breathe. And then, again, if this is too much, stay here. We can rotate the right ankle one way then the other, firming down through that left thighbone—Inhale in. And exhale, release, and switch. Nice and slow. If you need to take a full-body stretch in between, please do. And we’ll come to the other side. Hugging the left knee in, firming down through that right thighbone, and checking it out.

And Maybe We Stay Here Squeezing That Left Knee up Towards the Heart, or Maybe We Take It a Step Further, Nose to Knee

Rotate the left ankle. Be careful that you’re not gripping. Keep it nice and soft. And when you’re ready, we’ll slowly release. Great. Now, again, the last option before we finish, you might be done. You might be like, wow, great. Straight to Shavasana, I go. I’m going to widen the ankles. I’m going to open your arms out wide. I’m going to press into the head, lift, physically lift the chest up off the ground, and draw the shoulder blades in together and down together. Take a deep breath in. And exhale. We made it. If you have your Kleenex handy, you can always bring it to your eyes. Also, a nice, cold, wet washcloth is good for a little Shavasana hangover to chillax time. And so then you’re all set to settle in here. The last thing I’ll mention is that if you are kind of in your hangover, past that point of nausea, then you might flip your burger one more time for a headstand.

And that can be any version. So if you’re like, oh, man, I wanted to keep going, but I don’t know headstand yet, you can check out the foundational video on headstand, or you can give this a try, anyway, without lifting the legs. So we’re either in Shavasana right now. Maybe we can pause the video if we know we’re done, and we can start to just bliss out. Or we’ll come to all fours. Drop the elbows down, interlace the fingertips, and slowly walk the knees together to come to the crown of the head. Draw the shoulders away from the ears, and you might stay here as we breathe in and out. And this is just awesome—a couple of breaths here for a pounding head. If you want, you can curl the toes under and lift them up, making your way up to the headstand. I don’t even need to demonstrate that today, I don’t think, because this is really enough headstand if you have a hangover.

And Then, When You Feel Ready, We’ll Come to the Tops of the Feet

And just like we did before, we’ll cross the ankles and come through to seated. Or, again, you can swing the legs to the side; tons of options. And then we’re going to meet our friends, finally, in a flat back position. Inhale, reach the arms up and overhead—one last breath. And exhale, find your bliss.

So bending the elbows here, letting this armpit, chest, breathe. A smell of whiskey and wine infiltrates. Just kidding. That might bring this year. All right. Last but not least, we’re going to go for a little head rocking. Massaging the back of the head, the Atlas. If you have a block, it’s nice sometimes to pillow the head on the block and rub the back of the head on the corner of that block. So nice. And close your eyes. You can even get a blanket here, or you might say Namaste and make your way to the couch. Or back to bed. Or you might feel better. You might drink a nice tall glass of water with lemon. Take a shower. And enjoy your day. Okay, my friends. So take a deep breath of gratitude for even attempting a little yoga today.

And just let go of any toxic thoughts, any toxicity. If you do need to stay lying flat on your back or go, you know, take in some Netflix, then enjoy that. Just learn from it. And the more yoga you practice regularly, I do believe, the less you’ll ever want to drink. The more yoga I do, the less my body can handle the toxins, I’m noticing.