Benefits: This posture awakens the entire body in preparation for more complicated asanas. It challenges us to pay attention to details.
Step by Step
1. Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you. Keep the big toes, inner heels and inner knees together. Work the legs strongly by gripping the thigh muscles to the thigh bones and activating the muscles around the knee caps. Press the back of the knees into the floor. Ensure the legs do not rotate outwards.
2. Move the heel bones and sitting bones away from each other by stretching the heels away from the body and tilting the pelvis slightly forward. You will have a feeling of lengthening the back of the legs as well as the lower back. It is important not to collapse the lower back, work strongly to lift from the base of the pelvis. Ensure your weight is evenly distributed between the sitting bones.
3. Place the hands flat on the floor on either side of the hips with the fingers pointing forward. Allow your chest to lift, then broaden across the shoulders. Pull the navel in toward the spine, so you get a sense of lengthening the front of the torso. Having your tailbone act as a little anchor in this pose will let the rest of the vertebral column lift away from it, helping you to sit long and tall.
4. Check the position of your head and neck. Have your chin parallel to the floor, which prevents the chin from jutting forward and helps maintain a nice length in the back of the neck.
Benefits: This releasing pose invites us to open our view of who we are and what shape we make in the world. As we practice both sides, we improve the circulation of prana, our vital energy
Step by Step
1. Kneel and step the right foot out to the side with the right heel in line with the left knee. Place the right hand palm upon the right thigh. Tuck the tailbone under and lengthen up through the spine. Inhale and raise the left arm.
2. Move the right hip forward to bring it directly above the knee. Exhale and curve inward deeply at the right waist and extend the right arm along the front of the right leg, palm still facing up. Keep the back of the body on one plane.
3. Inhale, lift through the entire length of the left side from knee to fingertips. Exhale and arch the left arm over the head toward the right foot. Maintain an openness in the left armpit by easing the left arm back so your shoulders are one above the other. Bring the palms of the hands toward each other and turn the head to gaze upward from under the left arm. Stay here for five deep breaths, feeling the upper ribs expand.
4. Release the left arm on an inhalation, raising the torso back to center. Return the right leg to kneeling. Close your eyes and take a few breaths while you experience the difference in length between your left and right sides. Then repeat on the other side.
5. Counterpose: Paschimottanasana/Double Leg Forward Stretch.
Benefits: This standing balance posture requires strength and grace. Make use of your mental focus in this balance, and maintain it to come out with control.
Step by Step
1. Start in a Trikonasana/Triangle Pose on the right side. Place left hand to your sacrum, bend the right knee and place the right fingertips on the floor, about two hands forward of the right foot. At the same time, slide the left foot toward the right heel, so that your body weight begins to shift to the right foot.
2. Breath and stabilize your foundation. Exhale and straighten the right leg, lifting the left leg up until it is parallel with the floor. Be stable and steady on the right leg. Allow the left arm to lie against the left side of the body then turn the left shoulder, chest, and hip up toward the ceiling. Stretch the left arm skywards and gaze up over the left shoulder, or if this is slightly too much right now, keep left hand to the sacrum and gaze to the floor.
3. To release, lower the left leg to the floor, again straighten the right leg, and return to Trikonasana/Triangle Pose. Repeat on other side.
