Suki Dalury in Balasana. Photo credit Zoe Zimmerman, Sundara Studios* 2013
School starts this week in Taos, and with children in mind it seemed appropriate to offer up Balasana for our pose of the week.
The basic form of Child’s Pose is simple and easy to take.
Begin sitting on your shins with the tips of your big toes touching. Your knees can be narrow or they can be wider than the distance of your hips. Either placement of the knees is fine for the body, wider knees may provide more room for the low back to extend, while narrower knees may bring comfort to those with hip injuries or tightness.
Take a deep inhale and exhale to fold forward over your legs, walking your hands a comfortable distance out in front of you, then rest your head on the floor, a blanket, or your forearms.
If this posture hurts the knees, roll over onto your back drawing your knees into your chest, allowing the head and upper back to rest on the floor.
In Child’s Pose the front of the ribcage is compressed into the thighs, inviting the breath naturally into the back body, expanding into musculature that does not often get attention or expansion. This filling into the back of the lungs softens the spine. The compression of the knee and hip joints allows for the fluids of those joints to flush, and as the legs extend fresh energy is brought to those joints. Not only does Child’s Pose bring all this health anatomically, the calming inward turning supports and enables quieting the mind and deep relaxation.
Hold Child’s Pose for as long as you like. Enjoy the flow of your breath rising and falling as your body relaxes and your spine extends in this easy forward fold.
*Sundara Studios is a new collaboration between Suki, Zoe, and myself. Sundara Studios produces high quality print art, stationary, and gifts of physical expressions inspired in beauty, joy, and love.