New Moon Yoga - Happy Baby Pose

New Moon Yoga – Happy Baby Pose

This inherently comforting pose, known as Ananda Balasana in Sanskrit, allows us to return to our inner child, forming our own physical, unifying, circular binds with our hands and feet, and gently rocking if it feels good for us. The sensation of holding our own body can be really comforting and just what we need at a new moon, but at the same time we get the physical benefits of a deep hip fold and a good stretch round the back of the hips and thighs. The supine pose takes the gaze up and away, allowing us to feel unfettered by the distracting things around us, supporting introspection and inner focus, able just to deeply engage with the sensations in the body, finding angles and creases in a thoroughly satisfying way.

Happy Baby pose

The pose asks us to open both hips out to the sides at the same time as deeply folding the legs towards the floor. Physically, this then improves flexibility in the hips in multiple directions whilst deeply stretching the hamstrings, glutes and inner thighs. The flexion of knees and ankles stretches the calves and muscles in the feet. The arms, shoulders and core muscles are working to hold the legs whilst not bringing the upper body off the floor, and the abdominals and muscles in the lower back work to maintain length through the spine keeping the sacrum down on the floor. This is a pose which benefits from longer holds so there is a chance to fully release any tension in the hip area, allowing the stretch to deepen and flexibility to increase, promoting a sense of balance and harmony.

How to find Happy Baby pose

We come into this pose by lying down, so maybe after a Bridge pose or a supine spinal twist. Keeping the spine long and straight along the floor, bring the knees in towards the chest. Double check that the tail bone is not curling up off the floor, and, if it is, flatten the back of the pelvis back down to the floor, even if that means the knees move further away from the shoulders down towards the mid rib area. Keeping the head and shoulders on the floor, place the hands on the knees, easing them down closer to the body. Keeping the hands there and the legs folded, open the knees out to the sides, towards the space under your armpits, still ensuring the tailbone stays on the floor below you. Once the knees are nice and wide, keep them in place while you gradually ease the shins upward. The hands can find the back of the thighs, or can walk up the calves/shins towards the ankles, bringing the elbows inside the legs as you do so. The knees still ease towards the floor either side of the body as the shins ease towards perpendicular, stacking the feet directly above the knees, and the ankles flex so the feet form a 90 degree bend. You can stay here or you can deepen the pose further by moving the hands to hold the feet, either taking the hands to outside edges of the feet, or by holding the big toes with the first and second fingers hooked between the big and second toes, as seen in the main illustration.

Additional hand placements.

The neck is long, shoulders away from the ears and resting on the floor, as is the head. The arms keep drawing the thighs down towards the floor, working the legs towards 90 degree bends at knee and ankle, the feet then parallel with the ceiling.

Other options

Several options for placing the hands have been given, which give some leeway in terms of hip flexion, but if these still feel inaccessible the use of straps is a great way forward. Place a strap (a dressing gown tie or neck tie will work, if you don’t have a yoga strap) across the ball (not instep) of each foot and hold the ends in each hand, thus effectively lengthening your arms. The strap ends can be drawn down as if you were holding the feet directly, allowing your shoulders to stay rooted on the floor, shortening the straps as needed.

With any of the holding variations, you have the option to gently rock the body from side to side. This can feel really calming and reassuring, but if you don’t like it, simply don’t do it.

Breathing in the pose

For any of the variations, as you fold into the pose, keeping the knees wide will help keep the front body open. Similarly keeping shoulders down to the floor and drawn away from the ears will help keep the chest open. These technicalities will help the breath flow easily and deeply all the way down to the diaphragm. The introverted focus also encourages observation of the breath, so this is an ideal pose to develop your three-part breath.

Often we let our breath be shallow and high up in the chest, around the collar bones really. If we start in this pose by exploring this upper chest breath, noticing how it make us feel and seeing if we can slow the breath down, evening out the lengths of the in and out, we’ll perhaps find it a bit limiting. Maybe we can actively move the breath down a little, further into the lungs, so the ribs move. We can take longer deeper breaths here, feeling the front ribs rise and fall, exploring the side rib movements, maybe even beginning to notice the small movements at the back as the ribs expand out against the floor. Finally, we can try moving the breath down towards the belly. Letting the abdominal muscles relax on the inhale will allow the belly to expand, literally making space in the abdominal cavity for the diaphragm to move down, letting the lungs inflate to their fullest. On the out-breath, drawing the tummy muscles back in, as though the navel is moving in towards the spine, will help you find a really complete exhale, physically compacting the abdomen to help the diaphragm move upwards and force the breath out of the lungs.

Three different depths and styles of breath to explore and observe – not only in Happy Baby pose but in any pose where the torso has space to breathe.

Moving on

From Happy Baby pose, release the feet and legs, and then draw the knees back together and gradually place the feet down to the floor and slowly straighten out the legs. From here, anything is possible, but you might feel that, before anything else, a big stretch out along the mat, with the arms over the head along the floor feels nice after the deep hip crease of Happy Baby. You could find a supine Moon pose on each side, or you could further open up the front body with a Bridge pose. Another great follow on would be a supine spinal twist, the subject of another blog. Whichever direction your practice leads you today, take your time to find and settle into that pose, and then enjoy wherever you are, right here, right now.

Make sure you always look after yourself when doing yoga.

It’s important to always listen to your body and only work within your personal limitations. You are fully responsible for your own safety and wellbeing. Make sure your surroundings and your practices are safe. Do not attempt to take a physical posture that is outside of the scope of your practice. If you have any specific medical conditions, injuries, surgeries or are pregnant you should check with your GP or appropriate medical professional before starting any exercise. Keep in mind that yoga might be challenging at times, but it should never be painful. You must stop if you experience any pain, and you should consult your GP if you experience anything untoward such as dizziness or feeling faint. Rest or leave anything out that you need to avoid or that does not feel right.