CAUTION: Before exploring this pose, take care in practicing or do not practice at all if you suffer, have, or are experiencing any of these:
- Recent abdominal surgery,
- hernia,
- piles,
- pregnancy,
- menstruating,
- heart problem,
- hyper acidity,
- high blood pressure,
- slip disc,
- back and neck problems, or
- testicle disorder
Little Boat Pose or Pavanamuktasana
- I invite you to recline on the mat, gaze up, begin to relax the body and mind.
- Bend the legs, soles of the feat on the mat.
- When you are ready to do so, explore drawing the knees toward the chest.
- Wrap the arms around the knees if you would like.
- Once here, I invite you to begin saying aloud or mentally, “I embrace myself with compassion.” Give yourself permission to experience the healing energies of rest, love, and the Earth below. Do your best to hug yourself with joy, congratulate yourself on coming this far, on choosing to love, embodied in the very gesture of the pose you are in now. Tell yourself anything else that you need to hear at this moment, embracing yourself with compassionate thoughts, words, and action.
- When you are ready, release the arms down to the sides of the body, rest for a moment, and then roll up to a comfortable seated position.
- I invite you to press your hands to heart center, to thank your body for carrying you through this practice today, to thank the ground for supporting you, and the vital breath for connecting us all together so we might live in love. There is a word that means my inner light honors your inner light. That word is Namaste. I encourage you to say that word now, “Namaste.”