Downward Facing Dog has been one of my favorite poses ever since I discovered that it works as a sleep-inducer. It’s better than a sleeping pill for fixing insomnia.

But I know it’s difficult for many new students to understand how active this pose is, and learn to relax in the pose.

Here’s a great description of the pose Asana Anatomy Downward Facing Dog – My Yoga Online:

“At the palms, our fingers are spread wide, distributing the weight evenly from the thumb side to the pinky finger side. This minimizes tension and discomfort in the wrists. There should be an ever so slight bend in the elbow, created by the biceps, avoiding hyperextension at the elbows. Imagine the eyes of your elbows (the crease) gently turning forward without changing the hands. This requires the pronator muscle of the forearm to engage the internal rotation of the lower arms, as the rotator cuff muscles (teres major and infraspinatus) turn the elbow eyes forward with outward rotation of the upper arms. “

If you need help relaxing at any time, try Downward Facing Dog — a couple of minutes in this pose, and you’ll face the world with new confidence.

[tags]yoga, yoga poses, downward facing dog[/tags]

Are you new to yoga? Your entire yoga practice is a meditation. As you perform your yoga poses, you focus strictly on what’s happening with your body and what you’re trying to do. You move out of everyday consciousness into real concentration which is the basis of meditation.

There are specific yoga meditations you can do. Here is an excellent one: a whole body scan to balance your energy.

1. Sit Down or Lie Down, and Become Aware of Your Body

You can do this meditation either lying down on a flat surface, like the floor, or when you’re sitting upright in a chair.

If you’re lying down, relax completely, and become aware of your body. Take several long slow deep breaths. Close your eyes if you wish.

2. Follow Your Energy Throughout Your Body

Starting with your left foot, become aware of it. Be aware of your toes, be aware of your ankle, then be aware of the sole of your foot.

Next, be aware of your left leg’s calf muscles. Be aware of your left knee.

Gradually move your awareness to the top of your left leg, and then focus your awareness on your right foot. Gradually focus on every part of your right leg, then focus on the rest of your body.

Move your awareness slowly right throughout your body, going as quickly or as slowly as you like.

3. Let Thoughts and Feelings Go

Thoughts and emotions will interrupt your focus as you move your awareness through your body. Just be aware of any thoughts and emotions, and then let them go. Return to your body scan.

4. How to Manage Strong Feelings: Welcome Them

Strong feelings will arise in you. You could treat these emotions in one of two ways. You can either let them go, or you can welcome them, and feel them deeply.

Feelings and emotions are stored in your body. Every trauma you have ever experienced has laid down its traces in your body.

This is why occasionally you’ll find yourself weeping, or laughing as you do yoga. You’re not going crazy, you’ve just encountered one of these traces.

One way to remove these emotional traces is to welcome your emotions and to focus on them completely for a few moments. Some emotions are very strong, and if you feel an emotion is becoming too much for you, go back to your body scan.

However if you can welcome an emotion, and allow it, you’ll find that the emotion rises to a crest and then slowly dissipates. You need to feel emotions to remove the emotional traces in your body, so never be scared of any emotions which are aroused by your yoga. They’re perfectly natural.

When you’ve completed your whole body scan, lie still for a moment, and assess what’s changed since you began the meditation. This is a powerful, balancing yoga meditation. If you’re stressed, it will relax you, and if you’re tired, it will energize you.

[tags]yoga, yoga mediation, meditation, yoga poses[/tags]

Are you just starting your yoga practice? Child’s pose is a great pose you can perfect.

The benefit of this pose is that it’s very calming. No matter how stressed you feel in your daily life, this short sequence will give you instant stress relief:

* Tadasana (mountain pose)

* Child’s post

* Sitting pose

Stand in mountain pose for several breaths, ensuring that your weight is evenly balanced, on the balls of your feet, as well as on your heels. Stretch out your toes.

Then get onto your hands and knees, and sit back on your heels.

Move forward into child’s pose, and rest in the pose for a minute or two.

When you come out of the pose, sit in sitting pose, and feel the difference in your body, and in your mood.

[tags]yoga, beginners, yoga poses, childs pose[/tags]