Child’s Pose is perhaps the most basic resting pose in yoga. Child’s Pose may be practiced alone as a nice stretch for our back, arms, and hips, and, it may be practiced in the middle of a yoga flow if we need a brief rest to catch our breath or regroup our thoughts.
Whenever we practice Child’s Pose, remember to inhale and exhale deeply, feeling our breathe as it moves through our body.
Child’s Pose is practiced on the floor. We move into Child’s Pose from Downward Dog or from a seated position.
From Downward Facing Dog, gently lower our knees to the ground, our shins and the tops of our feet are flat on the floor. Slowly lower our hips toward our heels.
Move only as far as our bodies will allow. As we practice, our muscles stretch allowing us to sit further back on our heels. As we reach our hips toward our heels, we reach our arms straight out in front of us.
If we are moving into Child’s pose from a Seated Pose we gently bring our knees to our chest, feet flat on the floor. Mindfully roll our knees to one side and continue rolling until we are on our hands and knees, tops of our feet flat on the floor, in Table Top position.
From Table Top position, we gently push our hips back to our heels, tops of our feet flat on the floor, knees and ankles together. Reach our arms straight out in front of us. Our head drops between our arms to the floor.
Modification for Arms: If we are being mindful of our shoulders, we may cross our arms and rest our chin on our hands or stack our fists under our chin.
On the inhale, we expand our chest. On the exhale, we walk our finger tips further out and press our hips back and down toward our heels. On the next inhale, we keep our body in position and on the exhale, take what our body will give us stretching out with our arms and pushing our hips back and down.
Modification for lower back: If we desire more stretch for our lower back, we can spread our knees out to the edge of our mat, drop our bellies between our legs, keeping our big toes together.
We may repeat our breathing and stretching until we feel relaxed and ready to move on, or until we feel our body relaxed.
Mindfully return to a seated position. In yoga, we must move mindfully into and out of positions. More yogis are injured moving out of poses than practicing poses, because they move quickly and without intent.
To move from Child’s Pose to a Seated Pose, gently roll our back up until we are sitting on our heels. Mindfully, place your hands to one side on the ground and move our hips to the floor. Swing your legs around in front of you to a seated position.