Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Yoga Pose of the Month: Downward Dog
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These days everyone is searching for ways to achieve Life Balance. When asked about it, Google produces some 94,900,000 results. As a yoga teacher, I usually find that narrowing the focus works better than splintering it in millions of ways. Getting back to basics can start people on a path toward that ever-evasive contentment and balance.
In this article I will lead you through one of the simplest and most symbolic of poses, Downward Dog. In the future I hope to be able to demonstrate poses on Misstropolis video. Would you rather be able to see me doing this, or are you happy with a written guide? Let me know in your comments below.
I often watch my pug as he stretches, elongating his short body from his paws all the way up to his tail. The Downward Dog pose in yoga is a complete body stretch, from fingers to tailbone. My pug never worries about whether his life is balanced; he just sticks his tail in the air when he needs a stretch.
Downward Dog Pose
Start from Child’s Pose. Place your knees on the mat hip distance apart, feet close together, big toes touching. Sit on your heels, extend your spine forward and rest your forehead on the floor. Slide your arms back to let your shoulders relax. Take a deep breath in.
When you exhale, let your hips and lower back release. Take a couple more breaths and surrender your body, relax. Rise up on your hands and knees and spread your feet hip-distance apart. Tuck your toes under your heels and walk your hands forward slightly. Press down through your hands and feet and lift your knees off the floor, keeping your back straight. Press down through your hands and push your body away from them.
Keep your knees bent, draw your rib cage towards your thigh bones, and lift your sitting bones up. Come back down into Child’s Pose and notice any changes that you feel in your legs. Again, let your body completely relax. Slowly rise back up onto your hands and knees, inhale, and push your self back into Downward Dog. This time lift up as high as you can on your toes and stick your tail up high. Try to roll your shoulders back and away from your ears. Soften your elbows and try to rotate them in toward each other. This will create even more space between your shoulders and will widen your upper back.
Spread your chest and try to resist the tendency to push it down into the floor. Your back should feel long and extended. Gently lift your belly as you keep extending your back through your hips. Try to lift your thighs and rotate them toward each other. Notice how this action creates a release in your lower back. Without rounding your back try to lower your heels down into the mat. Extend your spine, and breathe. You should feel your body working hard, but at the same time releasing from the stretch.
Downward Dog can become very freeing and grounding when your front and back work in unison. Rest and repeat a couple more times. Your practice has just begun.
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