Get Down Dog this June and Feel Alive

Even for people who have never “done yoga before,” the pose downward facing dog (adho mukha svanasan in Sanskrit), may sound familiar. Down dog is practiced in nearly every tradition of yoga for its incredible healing power, the strength, length, and openness it offers practitioners.

The best way to practice down dog is to relax, as you’ve seen an animal do when she wags her tail up high in the sky, while kneading her paws into the ground. To relax in this way requires getting outside of your own ego, finding peace and emptiness through your breath.

Down dog cultivates a connection to the earth and is consequently grounding on many levels. This pose is great for relieving anxiety and depression, creating confidence, and balancing levels of energy in the body. It also strengthens the body and lengthens the spine, opens the heart and improves digestion.

Try practicing down dog in the grass, the sand, your bedroom, a boat, everywhere you go. Notice and enjoy the benefits: shanti (peace) and shakti (energy, vitality).

Namaste!

To get into the pose:

1. Come into table pose on the floor, hands under your shoulders, knees under hips. Spread wide through your fingers, tuck your toes under.

2. Exhale and lift your knees off of the ground. Let your knees remain bent as you lift your heels away from the floor. Lift your sitting bones toward the sky, high and wide.

3. Imagine your inner heel is reaching back, your inner knee bends slightly forward, and your inner hip reaches back.

4. With an exhalation begin to softly scoop the tail under until you find neutral (tail not too arced or too tucked), roll your thighs inward and back, energetically root down through each heel. Straighten your knees without locking them.

5. Press the bases of your index fingers into the floor, and from here, feel energy moving up into the arms. The upper arms externally rotate so the collar bones spread wide, wrap your armpits toward your heart. Keep your head between your upper arms; don’t let it hang.

6. With an exhale, bend your knees and return to table pose, find Child’s Pose and rest.