Marichyasana III (seated spinal rotation). Rotating your spine squeezes your abdominal organs, among which are your kidneys. Kidneys play a key role in influencing blood pressure, from the release of hormones, to the managing and excretion of toxins. No system works in isolation so all your organs (and your spinal column) get stretched in this pose but you'll feel a little refreshed after you practice this, and you'll find that having to breath more slowly (because this position restricts your breathing a little bit) also calms you down. As a result, you'll find this pose helps reduce hypertension. Give yourself a minute on each side to begin with, and a few seconds relaxing in between.
1. Sit in Dandasana. Bend one leg and bring your foot in front of your buttock, knee upright. Hold the shin with the hand on the opposite side (bent left leg? Hold the shin with your right hand) and take your other hand round behind you.
2. Focus on stacking your vertebrae one on top of the other so you keep your spine upright but turn, as you exhale, slowly, towards the bent leg side.
3. Feel like your filling cushions of air between the vertebrae as you inhale, and as you exhale, empty out your core so you can rotate further. Let the out breath be longer than the inbreath. No force. Just lots of attention on what's happening.
4. Inhale and slowly come back to the front. Repeat on the other side.
The alternative, Ardha Matsyendrasana, is the same posture but with a bent lower leg - be careful not to sit on the foot! You need a good anchor in the sitting bones so you can rotate from that point.
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