Yin Yoga: Child's Pose

This short demonstration talks you through how to practice Child's Pose. Child's Pose is a grounding position that helps calm the mind and nervous system during stressful times, and helps to release blockages and stagnant chi from the spleen, heart, and lung meridians. This is a video demonstration of the posture, which is covered in my audio course, 'Yin Yoga For Beginners.' If you enjoy the practice and would like to go a little deeper, you might like to listen to the whole course.

Transcript

We're going to practice Child's Pose with the legs wide, Which gives us plenty of space to open the chest and the arms and which also works with the inner legs. Come down to kneeling on your mat now. Bring your big toes together and open your knees so that they come out to the sides of the mat. Sit down onto your heels and now stretch the arms forward towards the front corners of your mat and bring the upper body down to the mat. Let your chest drop towards the mat. To support yourself here you might find it useful to place a block or a cushion onto your heels if you're unable to sit all the way back to your heels. You can also place some support under your head such as a block or if you prefer you can stack your arms and rest your head onto your forearms. You could also place a bolster or a pillow between your legs to support your upper body. If you do this you'll probably also want to support your forehead. Find your edge in the pose. Come to the place where you start to feel some intensity and now relax into the posture. Are there any areas where the muscles are gripping where you can release them? And as you hold the position notice the physical sensations and notice if you can feel any sensations or movements of energy. Any tingling or feelings of release? Now slowly walk your hands in to make your way back up. Make sure to move slowly, Especially as we stretch more deeply. It's important to continue treating the tissues gently as we come out of the postures. And now bring yourself down to lying on your back and observe any feelings in your body. Thank you for joining today's session.