We can always use more grounding in our practice and daily life but I feel it is especially important right now. 2020 seems to be throwing us one stressor after another and now more than ever it’s important to take the time to care for ourselves - one can’t pour from an empty cup. Yoga is an amazing tool for grounding but you may not have the time to go through a whole practice. Luckily there are a few single poses that offer an immediate feeling of grounding and calmness. My favorite of these poses is Child’s Pose.

Child’s Pose is an easy and accessible way to take a pause and drop into yourself. Curling your body around yourself is comforting and allows you to easily tune in to your breath, body, and mind. In Child’s Pose, you are wrapping the front of your body over your legs and exposing and broadening your back body. With this back body exposure, you’re able to breathe deeper into the spine and connective tissue between your ribs. Your breath is able to expand through your back and help release any tension or blocked energy held from prolonged sitting or standing. As you focus on your breath and expansion throughout your back body you are given space to drop into your emotional state. Resting here with whatever comes up gives your mind a break from the constant motion of the day. Consider this a mini retreat for your soul as you melt deeper into this pose and settle into stillness. Allow yourself to pause and reset here as your breath travels up and down your spine and your intestines are given a gentle massage as you inhale and exhale.

To get into this pose, come on to your knees and bring your big toes to touch and your knees to the width of your mat, or whatever a comfortable distance is for your anatomy. Inhale and as you exhale press your hips back towards your heels and walk your hands out in front of you. Once you get to your limit in your fold, drop your arms and head to rest passively on your mat. If your head is not able to touch the ground, use a block or pillow to support your head.

For those with sensitive knees and/or tight hips it can be helpful to fold or roll a blanket and rest it between your calves and hamstrings. Play with different thicknesses of your blanket until you find a comfortable height. For an ever deeper grounding and relaxing expression of this pose, you can rest a bolster (or stack of pillows) between your knees and fold over the bolster resting your head to one side at the end. If you do this make sure your prop is long enough to support your head and switch the side you're resting on the prop halfway through.

Start by holding this pose for 3 minutes and continue for as long as you feel it’s benefiting you physically and emotionally. To get out of the pose walk your hands back towards your knees and let your torso come up in tandem. Once you’ve reached a kneeling position you can slide onto one hip and press yourself up from there. Doing this once a day will help you maintain an ongoing calm (kind of like taking a vitamin), and using this pose to reset in the moment when things are particularly stressful gives you another tool to add to your kit.