Getting In Touch With Your Inner Child

Hi and Welcome to your Journey into Yoga! I’m Avery Rich and am so happy to have you along for the ride :) 

Today we will explore the wonderful pose known as child’s pose

Have you ever noticed how limber and flexible children are? Particularly babies; they just seem to have this unlimited flexibility to them - the way they bring their feet towards their mouths in play; the way they sit and move - its as if their muscles and joints have no restrictions - its a trait to be envied!  Think of a young child sitting on the floor with crossed legs - they do this with extreme ease barely thinking about it.  It happens all the time in the world of children:  assemblies, music class, and in school.   Now, change your thinking gears for a moment and consider an adult body sitting cross legged on the floor;  as a yoga teacher I see this all the time and I can testify that its not quite the same - in fact its not even close to how children sit this very same way.   Why is this?  Well, the short answer is that our muscles and joints become less limber as we age, and this is largely due to our lifestyles.  We sit in cars and at chairs - even on sofas and these activities tend to tighten our hips and backs amongst other muscle groups.  In turn, our muscles stiffen and when we come to sit on the floor, it looks a lot different than when we were young.  When i ask my adult yoga students to come to sitting with crossed legs, i see so many things:

-i see knees drawing up towards shoulders from tight hips

-i see people leaning or almost shifting back from tight groins

-i see shoulders drawing in an upward direction from tension moving through the body due to discomfort from simply sitting this way!

As we grow and age, we adopt habits in the way we move, sit and stand.  Naturally, not all of our habits promote health and wellness in our muscles and joints.  We sit on chairs and in cars too much - this kind of sitting is really hard on the hamstrings, hips and back. 

Consider how your body feels after a long plane ride - we often de-plane feeling stiff and tight because we have been sitting for consecutive hours with very little space to move.  I often see people trying to stretch out - legs, shoulders, necks - we certainly don’t feel our best after a long travel day.  Well, Life is like a plane ride - we spend so much time in unhealthy seated positions that our muscles and joints shorten and tighten, to the point where we now have restrictions that weren’t there when we were young.

Life is a wonderful journey full of experiences, and aging is a part of our lives and we wouldn’t want to live life in the rear view mirror.  However, when we journey into yoga, we work with poses that may assist us in bringing back some of that natural flexibility we were born with.  As we journey into our pose today, I am often reminded that sometimes, we need assistance and that’s not a bad thing! Using what we call props to help us find ease in a yoga pose is not only permissible but recommended.  I will explain more in a moment, but you may want to have some props handy for today. 

{other voice - PROPS? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?}

In the yoga world, a prop is simply something we use to assist in bringing more comfort  to a pose.  Props can be blankets, yoga blocks, pillows of all shapes and sizes even towels.  If you have no clue what a yoga block is, throw that idea out for now.  pillows, towels and blankets can work well for todays pose.  I will let you know when, where and if using them makes sense in your body as we move along. 

Our pose today is called Childs pose -  it is a forward bending pose thus residing in the family of forward folds.  Forward folds in yoga bring cooling to the body as well as calming.  This posture is really helpful to reduce anxiety as well - a wonderful pause for anytime really.

CHILDS POSE

I think a great place to start today is in hands and knees - the knees can start about shoulder distant apart,  but feel free to widen or narrow that spacing as we move along.- now bring your big toes together - it may be helpful at this point to widen the space between your knees taking your knees mat distance or even wider apart.  The next shift will be to bring your sit bones down towards your heels.  If you find this difficult bring your knees even further apart  -  if there is still a lot of restriction, grab your pillow and place it underneath your sit bones.  once the sit bones have settled, allow your upper body to fold forward bringing your forehead to the earth.  not happening? Support your forehead with something: 

Ideas: 

-stack your hands and rest your forehead onto that stack OR

-stack your fists - this will provide a higher eighth for you, and rest your forehead into that fist stack OR

-rest your forehead into a block or a pillow - you can also stack as many pillows as you would like and rest your forehead into that stack.  Once you feel settled you are there.  Rest.  let your shoulders rest heavy—let your hips rest heavy..let your arms rest anywhere that is comfortable for you and just focus on your breath.

Stay for 20 breaths

As you inhale your breath use the press of your palms to lift you back upright.  you are welcome to move into shavasana or if you are ready to end your practice today but just be sure to sit upright for at least a few breaths allowing your body and mind to settle.  Notice how you feel.  Take your time and be kind to yourself as you move back to your regular “off the mat” life. 

I am so happy you were able to join me on your journey into yoga.  Until next time, embrace your inner child and stay curious  Namaste!