In theme with the beginning of a new year, this blog post is about grounding yourself and planting your intentions (personal or professional). What are your intentions? Or perhaps you have an idea/vision of what you would like to develop, establish or welcome.
Below are 5 powerful poses for grounding yourself and nurturing your intentions, each with practice tips to enhance their benefits. January (and any other time that works for you) is a great time to focus on laying strong foundations in your poses to cultivate physical and mental stability, strength and focus. Step onto your mat to feel centred and focused, and let your seeds of intention take root and bloom.
5 Yoga Poses to Ground and Grow Your Intentions
To begin, here are a couple of tips to start off your practice:
Begin by standing at the top of your mat in Mountain Pose (Tadasana) or sitting cross-legged or in another seated position. Take a few slow, deep breaths and find a steady and comfortable rhythm. Maybe imagine inhaling and exhaling the word ‘ground’ or another word to serve you for several breath cycles. Focusing on your breath is also grounding in itself as it anchors your attention.
Then, set your intention (like planting like a seed). Plant it in your mind's eye or at your heart centre. Nurture it during your practice by repeating a few times (or as often as you wish). Intentions are powerful tools that can help deepen your practice, boost your motivation and enhance your focus and presence.
1. Tree Pose / Vrksasana
“Grounding in the body provides an anchor to steady your attention instead of losing your center.” - Oren Jay Sofer
5 Practice Tips:
Start with your hands on your hips. Press into all 4 corners of your right or left foot and come onto the balls of your other foot. Turn your lifted knee out to the side and rest heel on your standing ankle.
Keep pressing into all 4 corners of your standing foot to level your hips and stabilise pose.
Stay here or raise your lifted foot to rest on your inner calf or inner thigh. Avoid your knee.
Reach your tailbone down and pull your belly button towards your spine to engage your core.
Draw your shoulders down your back and lift your sternum to broaden your chest.
Find a focal point towards eye level to help balance.
Arm options: Stay with your hands on your hips or bring your palms together at your heart centre or lift your arms overhead.
For Gyan Mudra (Gyan means knowledge or wisdom): Touch the pads of your thumb and index finger together while extending your other fingers. The mudra/gesture is for clarity and growth.
To challenge balance: Lift your arms overhead. Or if your heel is against your ankle, play with hovering your big toe off the ground a few times.
To support balance: Practise next to a wall so you can reach for support if needed.
2. Downward Dog / Adho Mukha Svanasana
“Get yourself grounded and you can navigate even the stormiest roads in peace.” - Steve Goodier
5 Practice Tips:
Spread your fingers and press firmly into the entire span of your hands.
Push the ground away through your hands to extend your arms and lengthen your spine. Pushing the ground away will activate the muscles in your arms and produce the same force in the opposite direction (up) - helping to maintain the pose and build strength. If you notice any rounding in your shoulders or spine, bend your knees to lengthen your spine (your spine is the priority).
Find distance between your hands and your hips.
Firm your shoulder blades in and down your back to engage your back power.
Push your seat back and down to send weight to your lower half, helping to spread weight evenly across your body.
3. Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana II)
“..true strength is grounded, calm, and ever-present..” - Gage Paine
5 Practice Tips:
Un-grip your toes and ground down through all 4 corners of both feet.
Align your shoulders, ribs and hips in a straight line in the centre. Your back arm represents the past and your front arm represents the future, as you stay centred and grounded in the present.
Make sure your front knee stays above your ankle to protect your joints - you can crawl your toes forward or back to adjust. If there's any discomfort in your lower back, draw your front knee behind your ankle or shorten your stance.
Imagine your feet are sealed to the mat. Tap into the grounding and expansive nature of Warrior 2.
Ground down from your hips. To deepen stance, sink your hips.
4. Child's Pose / Balasana
"Yoga is a dance between control and surrender - between pushing and letting go - and when to push and when to let go becomes part of the creative process." - Joel Kramer
5 Practice Tips:
Sink your hips towards your heels and release your upper body with your arms in front or alongside your body. Rest your forehead on ground or a block.
Feel the support of your foundation.
Take a quick scan of your body. Notice how you feel. Are there any places you can soften.
If ok for neck, slowly roll your forehead to the right, then to the left. Repeat slowly a few times to gently massage your forehead. Re-centre forehead and repeat your intention.
For an active version of Child's Pose, walk your hands forward to extend your arms and push your seat back and down.
5. Fire Log Pose / Agnistambhasana (variation)
“The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa’ – steady effort in the direction you want to go.” - Sally Kempton
5 Practice Tips:
Sit cross-legged and heel toe your feet forward to create a triangular shape with your legs (shins are towards parallel). Flex your feet.
Inhale and grow tall. Exhale hinge forward at your hips with a long spine and open chest.
Breathe deeply into your belly. Exhale empty your belly and soften forward. Extend your arms out front.
Maintain grounding through your seat and lengthen your tailbone down.
Soften your hips, knees and any other areas.
Let something go on your exhale.
Reverse fold of your legs and repeat.
Finally, if you have time rest in Savasana for 2 to 5 minutes.
Corpse Pose / Savasana
5 Practice Tips:
Rest in Savasana for 2 to 5 minutes (or longer if you have time) to absorb the grounding benefits of the pose.
Spread out as comfortably as possible with your feet splayed out and palms face up.
Take a couple of slow, deep breaths in through your nose and out your mouth.
Take a quick scan of your body, releasing each part from your head to your toes. As you scan, you could say: Release back of head, top of head, forehead. Soften face, jaw, neck. Release chest, arms etc all the way to your toes.
Let your entire body feel the support of the ground beneath you. Say to yourself ‘I am supported’.
Rest in stillness.
Summary - Final Thoughts
Practising these 5 yoga poses can serve as a powerful practice for grounding yourself and nurturing your intentions. Each pose offers unique benefits to help you feel centred and focused, enabling you to embrace a fresh start or new beginnings with confidence and clarity. You might decide to practise these poses for a month to establish your foundations, or make a part of your regular routine, or revisit periodically to recharge, stay on track and reaffirm or adjust your intentions.
Let's practise: You might choose to spend 5 minutes or longer to practice 1, 2, or more of the poses when convenient for you. I recommend staying in each pose for 3 to 5 breaths to maximise the benefits. Then next time, you might choose the same or different poses, and so on. Over time, you may develop a routine that works for you. In any scenario, practise and enjoy at any time. I practise a session (10 to 20 minutes) in the morning to ground myself (Click here for Blog on Morning Yoga). Practising in the evening is also a great time to ground and restore yourself after a long day or week. Overall, yoga helps establish a calm and resilient foundation for your well-being, your intentions and your life.
10 Benefits of a Grounding Yoga Practice:
Builds strength
Restores/recharges batteries
Improves focus
Boosts motivation
Builds posture
Improves balance
Relieves anxiety and stress
Improves presence
Boosts confidence
Improves sleep
Other Grounding Activities:
Walking. (I love a walk to help me feel grounded).
Running.
Dancing. (Partner-dancing is one of my hobbies and I find that focusing on feeling the ground beneath my feet and engaging my core helps me to follow the leader's cues).
Meditating.
Breathing exercises e.g. inhale to a count of 4, hold for 1 (or up to 4 counts) and exhale to a count of 4. After a few cycles of breath, maintain breathing at this pace but let go of the counting. Welcome the flow of breath through your nose.
Scanning the body from head to toes e.g. to help relax, unwind or fall asleep .
Repeating a mantra e.g. to fall asleep i.e. ‘I let go’ to allow body to surrender/switch off.
Gardening.
Spending time in nature.
Swimming/paddling.
Taking a bath or shower.
Massaging your feet.
I would love to hear your thoughts/experiences on grounding down and nurturing your intentions (on and off the mat). Please leave a comment below or send me a DM. Namaste.
May our thoughts be grounded in positivity, may our actions grow from love and may our hearts bloom what they need.
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