Finding A Grounded Practice

When we talk about ‘being grounded’ it can relate to a number of different aspects to our yoga practice. It can quite literally mean to be grounded with the feet, hands or sitting bones in a posture, it can mean to be grounded in your practice .so not allowing external thoughts to creep in and take over, or it can mean grounded and connected to your breath, connecting each movement to each breath. 

Physical.

There are many postures within yoga that are considered to be grounding postures. These postures should leave you feeling present and still in each moment - the only moment where life really and truly exists. Some grounding postures below you might consider adding in to your daily or weekly practice: Mountain Pose - Tadasana Stand with your big toes touching and heels slightly apart or, the feet can be parallel just under the hips. Shift the weight into your toes and back into your heels to find a neutral position, and then lift your toes, spread them wide and then release them to your mat one by one, grounding evenly through the little toes, big toes, inside and outside edge of your heels. Lift your kneecaps upwards to engage your quadriceps, create a slight tuck to the tailbone to elongate the spine, draw the navel inwards, roll the shoulders up, back and down, palms of the hands facing forwards, gaze forwards, reaching up with the crown of the head.5–10 breaths.Four Limbed Staff Pose - Chaturanga Dandasana Begin in a Plank Pose, option to lower the knees to the mat. Shift forwards on the toes so that the shoulders come over the top of the fingertips, then in a straight line, keep the elbows tucked in, and lower the body to halfway, keeping the spine straight.1-3 breaths. Ensure as you come out of this pose you lower down or press back up in one straight line.

Yogi Squat - Malasana Begin standing with your feet about as wide as the mat. Ensure your toes point out slightly so the heels are also in slightly.Bring the hands together at heart centre, inhale to lengthen the spine, and on and exhale sink the sitting bones down towards the mat until the knees are fully bent, keeping the feet flat on the mat. Option to not fully bend the knees, option to sit on a block, and option to have the heels lifted. Press the elbows into the inside of the knees to open the hips.Keep the spine long and the crown lifted.3-5 breaths.Ensure as you come out of this pose you either release the hands to the mat and lengthen the hips upwards to come into a fold, relaxing the head and neck to counter this posture - or lower the seat bones to the mat and come into a seat.

Practice - It's very easy in the competitive social media led world that we live in o practice yoga with ego, to notice what your neighbour is doing, or what the teacher is doing and try to replicate that ourselves. That doesn't help our personal practice, or us in any way, and in actual fact can be quite detrimental.When we step on the mat to practice our asanas, we should have a still and focused mind, so parking external thoughts about life outside of the space where you are practicing, and focusing just on inhale, exhale, movement and space. Being centred and grounded within each movement and each breath.

This of course is easier said than done, but it is all part of the eight limbs of yoga, and without one of those limbs we are never truly practising yoga. So instead of focusing on what somebody else's physical body is doing we should be trying to practice our Yama’s (restraints), our Niyama’s (observances - of our self), whilst we are practising our Asanas (postures), and here as well Pranayama (breath control), Dharana (concentration) and also Pratyahara (the withdrawal of senses) - all of this combined will aid us in Dhyana (mediation) and ultimately lead us to Samadhi (pure contemplation.) You will find when you practice yoga you can completely lose yourself, but quite often you’ll find yourself at the same time.

Breath - There are many different types of breath control (Pranayama) that we can use within out yoga practice, but in terms of a breath we can retain throughout an asana practice, one that is used widely would be Ujjayi Breath or also sometimes knows as Ocean Breath. It is a breath that rolls in and out effortlessly like the waves of the ocean, so as we breath in and out we also move in and out of postures. It is a breath that takes an element of concentration to retain and therefore guides us and aids us in keeping our mind still of anything else.This breath balances the cardiorespiratory system and is both energising and relaxing. It can be used by experienced practitioners throughout a whole vinyasa practice! It is a heating breath so one to be mindful of if you’re practicing any style of hot yoga.Beginners to this breath can complete it with the mouth open first and utilise the same sensation as if they were fogging up a mirror, making a ‘har’ sound.

Method -To begin take a full exhalation and slightly contract the perineal muscles. Before inhaling draw the navel to the spine. Softly close the epiglottis and the top of the trachea - a small constriction at the back of the throat.

Take a full inhalation, keeping the abdomen still. Exhale and maintain the constriction at the back of the throat.

Want to know more?

If you’d like to know more about yoga or how to teach, we have courses where you can learn the basics, right the way through to our 500hr teacher training. You can view full course syllabuses on our website www.yogacourse.com