Child’s pose. Courtesy photo

By JACCI GRUNINGER, MS, C-IAYT, ERYT500
Los Alamos

Child’s Pose is another of the poses that can help us turn inside and surrender. It is also not always as easy as it looks. Luckily, as always, there are ways to modify the posture.

In addition to surrender, Child’s Pose:

• Calms your mind and relieves stress.
• Helps release tension in your lower back.
• Stretches the muscles in your lower back, hips, and legs.
• Allows you to rest and rejuvenate.
• Enables you to feel the sensations of breathing into the back side of your body.

What you might not know about Child’s Pose is its story. Are you familiar with Krishna the Hindu deity of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love? He is also the main character in the Bhagavad Gita. Unlike his adult form, as a child on Earth, Krishna was quite the trickster and trouble-maker.

For Krishna to interact with other humans it was necessary for others to forget his divine nature. One day, Krishna was playing with his brother Balaram and proceeded to eat dirt. Balaram quickly tattled on Krishna to their mother, Yashoda.

Hindu deity Krishna. Courtesy image

When Yashoda confronted Krishna he said, “no, I wasn’t eating mud, “ although his dirty face told a different story. Yashoda, not believing Krishna, asked him to open his mouth so she may peer in. When he did so and Yashoda looked inside, she discovered the Universe and the galaxies.

Of course, this is a difficult situation in yoga. We must remember that we are part of the divine/universe and then we need to forget this information so as to live in the world. The goal is to stay connected with our soul and be able to surrender. We must let go of our ego and as we are all dependent on something else.

When we turn inside while in child’s pose, it is an act of surrendering our ego to our heart and our higher self. We allow ourselves to receive and to give.

Moving into Garbasana/Child’s Pose

Find table position (hands and knees) on your mat allowing your knees to touch. Take a breath in and as you exhale, slightly round your back and press your hips to your heels. Lower your forehead to the floor and either keep your arms extended in front of you or release them to your sides, hands coming beside your feet. Stay here and breathe, feeling the breath in the backside of your body. Allow yourself to turn inside and just feel.

Ways to Modify

• If your knees bother you or your hips are tight, try putting a folded blanket across your calves up into the knee joint.
• If your head doesn’t touch the floor, make fists with your hands, stacking one on top of the other and rest your head on your hands. Or alternatively, place a block under your forehead or rest on your elbows, letting your head hang.
• If resting your belly on your thighs is uncomfortable, bring your big toes to touch and spread your knees wide allowing the belly to rest between the thighs. You may want to stay on your elbows or turn your head to one side rather than keep the forehead on the floor.
• If you have yoga props at home, try putting a bolster in between your knees raising the far end up on a yoga block, rest over the bolster.

Jacci Gruninger is a Certified Yoga Therapist and Thai Yoga Massage Therapist. She has been teaching for more than two decades and spent 12 of those years training yoga teachers for the Pranakriya School of Yoga Healing Arts. She regularly helps clients manage the ups and downs of life with yoga, meditation, breathwork and bodywork. Her Yoga Therapy Center is at 190 Central Park Square #212. For her in person and online teaching schedule and information on other services, visit www.yogawithjacci.com.