The changing of the seasons always brings a shift in mindset. As we get ready for fall, our minds and bodies naturally start to go inward. we seek a grounding to the earth. a stability we need to connect to our intuition and nurture what we are ready to set free. Here are three yoga poses for fall that can help you go in and ground down.
~Childs pose (Balasana): Sit with your knees wide, toes together and your hips down by your heels. Allow your forehead, palms and arms to relax on the mat. take deep even breaths from your belly, feel the breath fill the mat. so much of you is connected to the earth in this posture. you are folded into yourself and held by the earth beneath you which is extremely comforting. As you continue to breathe your body will naturally and slowly soften. ease will meet the mind, body and earth and you will transition into the present moment, grounded into your intuition.
~Standing forward fold (Uttanasana): Start to transition to your hands and knees, move through a few cat/cows feeling the four corners of your body grounded into the earth. This will awaken the body with your breathe warming up the spine. After a few cat/cows, plant into your palms, look forward and step to a forward fold at the top of the space. Use your two fists in between your feet for hip width distance. Bend your knees deeply to connect your lower belly to your upper thighs and hug your elbows or let your arms hang. This is a cooling and introverted posture that brings a shift in perspective of energy in the body. As you hang slowly feel all pieces of your feet grounded on the mat and play with shifting the weight forward as you lengthen through the backs of your legs. This pose builds trust from the inside out.
~Tree pose (Vriksasana): Next, bend your knees tuck your chin and slowly rise up to stand. ground into both feet feeling the support of the earth and then lift your left foot off the mat, landing your knee in line with your hip and grounding into your right leg. Use your palm to plant your left foot inside your right leg above or below your knee. Press the leg into the foot and the foot back into the leg. Using your own body and the earth to stand tall into tree pose. Shining your new creative energy forward from the inside out.
Fall is a season where we nurture our intuition. Our creativity, personal goals and intentions. Our dreams start to bubble up bringing a new creative energy to the surface. We followed this arc with these three postures. First we softened inward and really grounded into the earth, then we used that connection and stability to get a little taller. after folding into ourselves, feeling an energy shift in the mind and body we were ready to grow our new branches out into the world. standing in tree pose, we used the body, earth and breath to stand tall and slowly grow into our new truth.
