Child’s Pose, Balasana
How-To:
1. Kneel on the floor. Touch your big toes together and sit on your heels, then separate your knees about as wide as your hips.2. Exhale and lay your torso down between your thighs. Broaden your sacrum across the back of your pelvis and narrow your hip points toward the navel, so that they nestle down onto the inner thighs. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of the pelvis while you lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck.
3. Fold over your upper body and bring your forehead to the ground. Stretch your arms over your head and place your palms on the floor for active child’s pose. For passive child’s pose, rest your hands on the floor along your body with your palms up. Now your torso and legs are balanced on the backs of your upper arms.4. Balasana is a resting pose. Stay anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. Beginners can also use Balasana to get a taste of a deep forward bend, where the torso rests on the thighs. Stay in the pose from 1 to 3 minutes. To come up, first lengthen the front torso, and then with an inhalation lift from the tailbone as it presses down and into the pelvis.
Benefits:
This is a restful pose that is kind and gentle to your body. It gently stretches the thighs, hips, & ankles. It also calms the brain and can relieve stress and fatigue. Women can use this pose to relieve the pain of menstrual cramps - I can tell you from personal experience that it works!!
(see previous “healing through yoga” entries here!)
