Inversions can change your perspective and your mood! Your assignment for today is to practice an inversion called Downward Facing Dog, or Adho Mukha Svanasana.
How to Get Into the Pose
**Make sure to practice on a surface you can grip (carpet might be hard), and if it’s hard to grip, you can use a yoga mat, or place your heels at the edge of a wall and/or your hands on a rough towel. Another tip is to press into the tops of your fingertips to help grip!
Start on your hands and knees in a table top position. (lulz to all the chess trophies…)
Legs are hip distance apart, and arms are shoulder distance apart (meaning, the front of one to shoulder to the other)
Extend your right (R) leg back, then your left (L) for plank.
Draw your belly button and frontal ribs in towards your spine, and press your shoulders away from the ears.
Lift your hips up, and press them back. You can play with bending the knees, or pedaling the feet out to warm the calves.
To get out the pose, walk your hands back towards your feet, and very slowly roll up one vertebrae at a time to standing position.
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How Long to Hold
1. You can flow between plank and downward facing dog.
Inhale – Plank
Exhale – Downward Facing Dog
**I like to slowly flow 3-8 times (especially when I’m anxious/panicky to get rid of nervous energy) and then, I end by holding the pose to fully calm my nerves and shift my mood.
2. Or hold the pose for 3-5 breaths. Focus on breathing into the belly. Inhale into the nose, exhale out the nose. Sometimes it’s nice to take in a big inhale, and sigh the breath out the mouth. Imagine your inhales are filling up your belly + the heart, and your exhales are going down your spine, down your legs, out your feet.
Variations
Puppy Dog Pose – If Downward Facing Dog is too much on the body, this is a nice variation. Place your hands on the wall at the height of your waist. Step your feet back, and move your hips back. Make sure your feet are hip distance apart, and that your fingers your wrists are in line with the crease of the wall (you don’t want your hands coming in towards each other). You can also do this with your knuckles if this bothers the wrists.
Puppy Dog with a chair – Same thing except you hold on to the sides of a chair – it’s nice for tender wrists.
How I Feel After This Pose
Lately, I’ve been feeling very fatigued and just off, so I loveeee holding this pose. It creates room for my belly to breathe, calms my nerves, and gives me a pinch of energy so I can go about my day. It’s very soothing when you’re in a depressed mood <333 On top of all these wonderful things, it creates space in my spine so my posture improves. There’s a famous quote by Hippocrates, a Greek physician born in 460 B.C., that I love, because even back then, he knew creating space in the physical body can help our mental and emotional bodies:
“Look well to the spine for the cause of disease.”
Have a good Tuesday! Another pose will be posted tomorrow :) Let me know how you feel after practicing Downward Facing Dog by emailing strangeisbeauty@gmail.com
Sending ++posi vibes++
-Shay of TSIB
