peace: this poem makes me reflect that yoga helps us uncover and own our inner peace :
“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The souls that rises with us, our life’s star,
hath had elsewhere its setting. and cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory
do we come from God,
who is our home” ~ William Wordsworth
The pose pictured below, ananda balasana, or, happy baby pose reminds us that we come from a carefree state, where stretching is pleasant and explorative. Try to form the intention to practice it with the same freshness of a baby, and breathe peacefully Pronounced:(AH-nahn-dah-BAHL-ahs-ahna)
Ananda = blissful
Bala = baby
The how to’s:
1. Lie on your back with your knees drawn in towards your chest.
2. Take hold of your feet with your hands. Place your arms in front of your shins, and hold on to the outside edges of your feet.
3. Draw your shoulders on to your back, tone your arms and flex your feet as you pull down on your feet, pressing through the mound of the big toes.
4. Draw your knees wide and toward your armpits and try to stack your ankles above your knees.
5. Lengthen your lower back down to the ground.
6. Stay here for 1 minute, and then release and draw your knees in to your chest.
Here are some benefits of the posture:
- Opens and stretches the hips
- Stretches the inner groins
- Lengthens and helps to realign the spine
- Calms the mind and relieves stress
- Strengthens the arms and shoulders
Happy baby pose
Rana Waxman is a registered yoga therapist ERYT-500, with 20 years of teaching experience. Rana is a freelance writer and social media expert in addition to leading yoga workshops internationally and teaching alignment focused private and group Yoga Lessons in Hoboken and Jersey City NJ.
