BUILD INNER STRENGTH

Mountain

Essence: Being grounded

Focus: Balance your weight evenly between your feet and engage pada bandha. Keep a neutral pelvis and let your tailbone release downwards. Extend two lines of energy – from your centre down through your feet, and from your centre up through your crown.

Benefits: Ideal for exploring what it means to you to be grounded, this pose strengthens the feet and legs, and enables you to tune into and become familiar with inner stillness.

Tree Essence: Finding balance

Focus: Root through the standing foot with pada bandha. Press the sole of the raised foot into the inner thigh or calf of the supporting leg, while pushing the supporting leg into the raised foot. Gaze at a fixed point to aid balance.

Benefits: Tree pose progresses what you learned in mountain. Helping to build focus and concentration, it encourages trust in yourself while teaching you to maintain your position when faced with instability or turmoil.

Garland

Essence: Receiving earth energy

Focus: Press your upper arms into your thighs and release your tailbone as you lengthen the spine. If needed, take your feet wider apart and/or rest your heels on a folded blanket.

Benefits: Squatting close to the earth in this position gives a strong sense of security. Energy releases simultaneously downwards, through the base of the spine, and upwards through the crown, creating a sense of balance. Releases stress held in the lower back, hips and legs.

Downward dog

Essence: Inner strength Focus: Use hasta bandha to ground through your hands, and imagine pushing the floor away from you. If your whole foot is in contact with the floor, use pada bandha. Lengthen the tailbone up and back and bring your chest to your thighs.

Benefits: Attention is directed inwards in this pose, teaching you to be dependent on yourself, rather than other people or external situations in order to feel safe and balanced. Refreshes the mind, strengthens your whole body.

Reclined butterfly

Essence: Deep rest

Focus: Use an eye pillow and breathe into the belly. Deepen the benefits by resting your back on a tilted bolster (place a few blocks beneath the head end), allowing your arms to drape to the floor. Help hips release by resting your knees on blocks.

Benefits: Resets your nervous system, taking you out of flight or fight mode into rest and digest. It slows the breath and heart rate, calms the mind and leaves you feeling more able to face the demands of the day.