POW! (Pose of the Week)

I know I missed a few days of posting, but I'm back today with a Pose of the Week! That's the nice thing about having a regular feature on your blog...it gives you something to post about... (baby steps, my lone reader, baby steps!) Speaking of baby steps:



Pose of the Week: Balasana- because we've all been there!



Child's Pose: Stretches your ankles, knees, and hips and opens the upper back while calming the mind and reducing stress.



Balasana is one of those poses the instructor encourages you to return to if you need to take a breather in the midst of practice, and, boy, is that sometimes necessary. It seems like such a simple pose, but if you have stiff ankles (as I sometimes do), you may really need some effort to take this pose and remain there. While not even remotely aerobic, it certainly stretches all of those little places in your knees, ankles, back and shoulders that you rarely think about until you get in this pose. And this gentle, yet purposeful stretch can feel so good!



Balasana is also one of those poses that you've probably found yourself in since before you even knew what "yoga" was! I suppose that's where "child's pose" comes in. But when does a pose stop being a position and start being "yoga"?

• Is it when there's intention? When my children were infants, they actually slept in Balasana, and I'm pretty sure they did so with intention: "I'm sitting on my knees. I'm tired. I am going to fall forward and sleep with my rear end in the air!" It was oh so cute! But I don't think it was "yoga".


• Is it when you feel like it's "exercise"? Yoga never feels like exercise to me. Maybe that's why I like it so much. And maybe that's why some of my friends don't like it - they prefer to sweat it out when they are working out (even though I can relate many, many times when I've sweat it out in yoga class!) The beauty of the work is that it's still working something, though!


• Is it when there's focus? When you're in Child's Pose, stretching your arms in front, or relaxing them toward the back, it's easy to gaze towards your navel, focus inward, and start (or resume) the conversation about where you're finding yourself.

I guess the bottom line is that a pose is "yoga" when you say it's "yoga". You could be focused, or not (how many times has my mind wandered during class?!?) You could have intention there. You could be sweating it out in class. Yoga is there when you're ready for it to be.

Spend a few minutes acting like a child today.