What Yoga Pose Do You Need Right Now?

Child's Pose is calling! One of the most calming and restorative poses, Balasana stretches the ankles, hips, and thighs, calms the mind, and relieves stress and fatigue.

To get in: bring your big toes to touch, knees wide, and forehead to the floor. Extend the arms out, but soften the shoulders. Let the belly sink between your legs. Let go a little more with each exhale.

Tips: Avoid balasana if you are pregnant or have knee issues. If it's hard for you to sit back on your calves, place a rolled up blanket horizontally between your calves and thighs.

You need some Savasana in your life! Corpse Pose, the most important posture, calms the mind, relaxes the central nervous system, reduces fatigue, improves sleep, relieves stress, and helps lower blood pressure.

How to get in: laying on your back, let the feet flop open. Face palms down towards the earth to feel grounded, or up to the sky to receive energy. Notice how the ground supports you. Let your body be heavy.

Let Adho Mukha Svanasana AKA Downward Facing Dog, melt your stress away! This posture enhances digestion, boosts self confidence, builds bone density, naturally energizes, eliminates stiffness, promotes circulation, strengthens and tones arms and legs, strengthens core, and lengthens the spine to relieve pain in the lower, middle, and upper back.

Alighnment Tips for Downward Dog:
-hands shoulder distance apart
-feet hip distance apart
-activate arms
-externally rotate upper arms
-neck and head in line with spine
-broaden shoulder blades
-naval to spine
-bend knees
-send tailbone up and back

Depending on your mood, try Happy Baby or Dead Bug! Ananda Balasana stretches the hips, inner groins and low back, improves spinal alignment, strengthens arms and shoulders, calms the mind, reduces stress, release the neck, and increases vitality.

Tip: If you can't easily hold your feet with your hands, try holding each foot with a yoga strap looped around the middle arch.

Try Bridge Pose today! Setu Bandha Sarvangasana calms the brain and central nervous system, alleviates stress, improves circulation, stretches hips, spine, neck and chest, stimulates lungs, thyroid and abdominal glands, helps digestion, reduces headaches, backaches, fatigue, insomnia and anxiety, relieves symptoms of high blood pressure.

How to get in: lie on your back with knees bent feet flat on floor. Press feet and arms into the floor, lifting your hips to the sky on an exhale.

Tip: focus on alignment. Pay close attention to your knees, don't allow them to splay wider than your feet as you rise upwards.

Give Boat Pose a go! Paripurna Navasana helps relieve stress, strengthens the spine, abdomen, and hip flexors, stimulates the kidneys, thyroid, prostate glands, and intestines, and improves digestion.

How to get in: begin seated with bent knees and feet flat on the floor. Focus on smooth, calm, even breathing. Straighten spine, lean back slightly, and lift feet so shins are parallel with the floor. Bring the low back in, lift the chest, and lengthen torso. Don't let low back sag or chest to collapse.

Tip: remember this empowering pose calls for a quiet mind, dedication, and practice. Provides safety through balance and strength.

Your body called, it wants some Plank Pose! Phalakasana strengthens the entire body, especially arms, wrists, spine and abdomen. Builds endurance, and aids in better posture.

How to get in: begin on hands and knees. Spread fingers wide underneath the shoulders, and actively push the ground away from you. Gaze between the hands to lengthen the neck and draw belly button towards the spine. Head and body should be in one line. Lift the thighs, and broaden through shoulder blades and collarbones.

This posture is sure to help you build strength when done correctly. Remember to keep you body in a straight line from shoulders to heels, and maintain shoulders directly over wrists.

Try Chair Pose! Utkatasana strengthens hip flexors, thighs, and glutes, strengthens and stretches calf muscles, opens chest, shoulders and upper back, improves ankle range of motion. Stimulates abdominal organs, diaphragm, and heart.

How to get in: begin standing with big toes touching, or feet hip-distance apart. Inhale, raising arms over head. Exhale, bend the knees, bringing thighs as close to parallel with the floor as possible. Bringing elbows towards ears, tuck the tailbone down. Sink the hips lower as you lift the heart. Gaze forward. Rotate pinky fingers towards each other.

Tips: Arch the back slightly. Squeeze thighs. Keep weight in heels.