“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Just to piggyback off my last post on Earth Day, I’ve been reflecting on how to honor the Earth through yoga and so I’ve been playing with Earth Salutations.
Maybe you’ve heard of sun salutations or Vinyasa Yoga and you like to flow through sequences of postures. Or maybe you’d rather move slow, transition gradually, and hold postures for longer periods of time as you feel your breath expand.
Chances are, your preferences change from day to day or depending upon your energy level. If you’re menstruating, you might notice that your yoga practice changes according to what’s going on with you physically and emotionally. Postpartum, moms often notice a need to slow down. Then again, maybe your baby is a year old and your more than ready to get back to a vigorous practice! The nature of motherhood is ever-changing and that means our yoga practices should change, too!
Being a mom often means switching modes according to the situation: sometimes it’s pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and powering through parts of your day even when you don’t feel up to it. Sometimes it means asking for help or letting go of some expectations when you can’t do it all. Other times it means recognizing when you need to slow down, rest, and get grounded.
I’ve been writing a bit about the Divine Feminine and what exactly that is, especially in the context of yoga. In honor of that, and in honor of this week following Earth Day, I’d like to share an Earth Salutation. Saluting the Earth means staying close to Her, letting Her support you, embodying stability, and flowing with gravity. Earth is the Divine Feminine manifest and movement can be the most tangible way to touch that sacred feminine energy.
So here is one version of an Earth Salutation. Feel free to modify, move slower or faster, or pause in some of the postures. Add any poses you feel moved to include, leave out any that don’t suit you. Most of all, notice and feel all the areas of your body that are in contact with the ground. This is just one way to invoke the energy of the Earth! Jai Ma!
The sequence, which is repeated twice in the video:
Corpse - roll to face down - bhujangasana - extended child - slide through to bhujangasana - face down - corpse