Article - NESHealth Practitioners

FIRE | Boat Pose - Paripurna Navasana

  • Navasana is an empowering pose that requires dedication, practice, and a quiet mind. Just like a ship calmly making its way through a storm, Boat Pose will provide safety through balance and strength when the waves of life get rough!


    Step-By-Step:

    1. Begin seated with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hands resting beside your hips. Draw your awareness inward and focus on your breath. Allow your inhalations and exhalations to be smooth, calm, and even.

    2. Keeping your spine straight, lean back slightly and lift your feet, bringing your shins parallel to the floor.

    3. Draw in your low back, lift your chest, and lengthen the front of your torso. Then, extend your arms forward, in line with your shoulders with your palms facing each other.

    4. Balance on your sit bones, keeping your spine straight. Take care not to let your lower back sag or chest collapse.

    5. Lengthen the front of your torso from your pubic bone to the top of your sternum. The lower belly (the area below your navel) should be firm and somewhat flat, but not hard or thick.

    6. With an exhalation, straighten your legs to a 45-degree angle from the ground, bringing your body into a "V" shape.

    7. Keep your breath easy, steady, and smooth. Focus your awareness within. Soften your eyes and your face. Gaze at your toes.

    8. Spread your shoulder blades wide and reach out through your fingers, actively engaging your hands.

    9. Stay in the pose for five breaths, gradually working up to one minute. To release the pose, exhale as you lower your legs and hands to the floor.

    10. legs with an exhalation and sit upright on an inhalation.


    Info:

    You can practice a preparation for this pose periodically throughout your day without even leaving your chair. Sit on the front edge of a seat with your knees at right angles. Grab onto the sides of the seat with your hands and lean slightly forward. Firm your arms and lift your buttocks slightly off the seat, then raise your heels slightly off the floor (but not the balls of your feet). Let the heads of your thigh bones sink into the pull of gravity and push the top of your sternum forward and up.