Dandasana This basic seated posture is the starting and finishing point of all sitting postures and twists. This posture awakens the entire body in preparation for more complicated asanas. It challenges us to pay attention to details.
1 Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you. Keep the big toes, inner heels, and inner knees together. Work your legs strongly by gripping the thigh muscles to the thigh bones and activating the muscles around the knee caps. Press the back of the knees into the floor. Make sure the legs do not rotate outward.
2 Move the heel bones and sitting bones away from each other by stretching the heels away from the body and tilting the pelvis slightly forward. You will have a feeling of lengthening the back of the legs as well as the lower back. It is important not to collapse the lower back, working strongly to lift from the base of the pelvis. Make sure your weight is equally distributed between the sitting bones.
3 Place the hands flat on the floor on either side of the hips with the fingers pointing forward. Allow your chest to lift, then broaden across the shoulders.
4 Pull the navel in toward the spine, so you get a sense of lengthening the front of the torso. Having your tailbone act as a little anchor in this pose will let the rest of the vertebral column lift away from it, helping you sit long and tall.
5 Check the position of your head and neck. Have your chin parallel to the floor, which prevents the chin from jutting forward and helps maintain a nice length in the back of the neck. The pictures show a front-on view, A and a side-on view. B
GAZE Straight ahead with a level gaze.
BUILD-UP POSE Mountain Pose.
COUNTER POSE East Stretch Posture.
LIGHTEN a) Place a folded blanket under the sitting bones. b) Sit straight with your back against a wall, buttocks wedged as closely as possible against the wall.
EFFECT Calming.