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simultaneously stretches the hamstrings and opens the shoulders—two actions that will improve your yoga practice and increase mobility in your daily life. Acumen is required to make progress in both areas, which sometimes seem to be in conflict. When you pursue the forward-bending aspect of the posture (which elongates the hamstrings) with so much enthusiasm that your shoulders round forward and your chest collapses, you’ve missed an excellent opportunity to increase the range of motion in your shoulders and counteract some postural habits that our increasingly computer- and car-driven lives promote. Although Parsvottanasana contains a forward bend, it’s dramatically improved by weaving in an element of backbending: keeping length along the front of your body.Marrying opposites, of course, is central to the big picture of hatha yoga, often defined as the union between the opposing solar and lunar energies. You also need to find a balance between freedom and stability in Parsvottanasana. The freedom you can find in your upper body as you extend your spine and open your shoulders is very much facilitated by the stability of your base and the strength of your legs. As you explore the pose, embrace its dualities. Your physical alignment will improve, and with the liberating effects of embodying opposites, you may experience an energetic alignment as well.

Set Your Base

To begin, stand facing a wall and place your hands on it shoulder-distance apart and at hipbone height. Step your right foot back about 4 feet, placing your left foot about 1 1/2 feet from the wall and reaching your hips back so that your arms and torso are parallel to the floor. Make sure you create a straight line from your hands to your shoulders to your hips, with your ears in line with your upper arms and your gaze to the floor. Set up with your heels in line with each other, with your front toes pointed forward and your back foot at a 45-degree angle.

Now start to bring the base of the pose into alignment. The goal is to square your hips; this usually involves pulling the front hip back and shifting the other hip forward. To achieve this, press down with the ball of your big toes and engage your quadriceps, drawing your front outer hip back and up and firming it into the midline of your body. Then release your back inner thigh to the wall behind you to roll your back hip forward.

Notice whether your thigh rotation caused your back foot’s inner arch to collapse; this is fairly common, but you want to make sure to lift the inner arch so that the outer edge of the foot stays heavy and grounded. Once your hips are even, use the strength of your arms pushing against the wall to lengthen your spine and the sides of your body by pressing your hips into the center of the room.

The asana name Parsvottanasana derives from the Sanskrit words parsva (side, or flank) and uttana (intense stretch). Remember this as you aim to establish an expansive quality along your torso. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths, then switch sides.

Make Space

For the next variation, face the center of the room and place one heel against the wall. Use the same stance as in the last round, and square your hips again. Try “scissoring” your inner thighs: Energetically draw them toward each other, which will help create stability in your base. With your next inhalation, take your arms out to the sides and internally rotate the upper arm bones (humeri) in your shoulder sockets so that your palms face the wall behind you.

As you exhale, make gentle fists and bring your knuckles together behind your back just below your shoulder blades. When you do this, your shoulder heads may collapse forward, and your trapezius muscles may tighten up. Rather than reinforce this less-than-ideal position, draw the shoulder heads up and back and externally rotate the upper arms by spinning the inner arm toward the outer arm.

It won’t be a dramatic motion, but the action is important for developing the range of motion in your shoulders. Make sure when you do this that there is no pain in your shoulders; if there is, back off slightly so you can ease your way into creating openness.

Take an inhalation, and accentuate the space along and across the front of your body by lifting your sternum (breastbone) away from your navel and spreading your collarbones. With your next exhalation, extend out over your front leg as you keep your hips square and your shoulders drawing up and away from the floor.

Resist the impulse to surrender to gravity, which would cause your shoulders and chest to collapse. Instead, keep your base active by engaging your quadriceps—drawing the inner thighs toward each other—and pressing the back femur (thighbone) firmly toward the wall behind you so that your heel is grounded between the floor and the wall to secure the pose. Let the crown of your head be an extension of the length of your spine, so that your entire neck is long and your gaze is toward your big toe. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths, and then switch sides.

Find Union

For the classical version of the pose, move your mat to the center of the room. Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) at the front of the mat, place your hands at your hips, and feel your frontal hipbones pointing straight forward like a pair of headlights. Keeping your hips square, step the right leg back 31/2 to 4 feet, and recreate the heel-to-heel alignment from the last rounds. For maximum extension in your spine, take a long stance. To make sure your hips are square, activate your front thigh and draw your outer hip back and into the midline of your body. Before you shift your other hip forward, however, make sure that your back foot is at a 45-degree angle, which will help protect your knee and align your hips. If the angle of your back foot is too open to the side, the knee gets wrenched when you roll the right hip forward to square it with the left. If, on the other hand, the toes point too far forward, you’ll struggle to keep the back heel down and will lose stability.

Now, direct your back inner thigh to the wall behind you so that your hip spins forward. Keep your tailbone heavy so that it anchors you. On an inhalation, take your arms out to the side. As you exhale, rotate your arms and press your palms together behind your back. If you can, point your fingers up in a prayer position. Your -shoulders might immediately collapse forward. Externally rotate the upper arms in their sockets, spinning your inner arm toward your outer arm so that your shoulders and chest lift.

With your next inhalation, reach your sternum away from your navel to open your heart. Keep your quadriceps engaged and your hips square. On an exhalation, extend forward without shortening the front of your body. Look toward your left big toe with a gaze that is soft but unwavering. Remain rooted through your feet and legs and stay compact in your hips; the steadiness in your base will translate into greater freedom in extending your spine as well as more latitude in opening your shoulders. A firm foundation will help you maintain your balance so that you can focus on the work in your upper body.

There’s also a link between the stability of your foundation and the spaciousness in your torso—you’re basically flavoring your forward bend with a backbending element when you strive for length along the front body. This is the union of opposites&mdashthe yuj, or yoke, which yoga teaches us to inhabit.

Have you ever waded knee-deep through the detritus of discarded paper, tissue, and ribbon after a gift-opening frenzy and thought, “What a waste”? Well, you’re right. According to Use Less Stuff (use-less-stuff.com) , during the holiday season Americans throw away 25 percent more trash than usual—or 25 million tons of garbage. What’s more, many wrapping materials are not recyclable because they have a high metal content.

After years of witnessing the aftermath of family Christmases and children’s parties, former yoga teacher Kathryn Hapke was inspired to find a better way to wrap gifts. She started Wrapsacks (wrapsacks.com), a business that sells hand-dyed batik cotton gift bags—with a twist. Wrapsacks are meant to be regifted. Each bag comes with a tracking number so you can see how far your bag has traveled. You can even watch the bag’s journey using Google maps—a fun activity for kids.

In addition to using cloth bags, you can recycle old wrapping paper or create your own style of decorative and eco-friendly gift wraps. With a little effort, your packages will be as big a hit as the gifts they contain.

• Furoshiki is a type of traditional Japanese wrapping using cloth. Take any square of cloth—a bandana, a scarf, or even a cut-up shirt or pair of jeans—lay it out in a diamond shape, and center the gift on it. Flip the southern corner of fabric up over the gift, tucking the cloth under if necessary, and bring the north corner over the top and let any extra material hang. Then tie the east and west corners at the top of the gift.
• Decorate a paper bag with stencil or crayon.
• Use an out-of-date map or some sheet music.
• Recycle vintage containers, such as cigar, shoe, or hat boxes.
• Incorporate environmentally friendly items, such as raffia, string, or strips of cotton or silk, in lieu of synthetic ribbon.
• Use natural gift-box fillers, such as leaves, straw, pine needles, or shredded recycled paper scented with a few drops of essential oil.

1.To begin the practice of self-inquiry, sit for meditation as usual. If you don’t already have a regular practice, just sit quietly and allow the mind to settle naturally. Don’t attempt to focus your mind or manipulate your experience, just rest as awareness itself. 2.After 10 or 15 minutes introduce the question “Who am I?” Drop the question into the stillness of your being like a pebble into a still forest pool. Let it send ripples through your meditation, but don’t attempt to figure it out!

3. When the pond is tranquil again, drop in another pebble and see what happens. Set aside any conceptual answers, such as “I am a child of God” or “I am consciousness” or “I am a spiritual being of light,” and come back to the question. Though true at a certain level, these answers will not satisfy your hunger for spiritual sustenance.

4.Instead of “Who am I?” you may prefer asking, “Who is thinking this thought? Who is seeing through these eyes right now?”

5.For the practice of self-inquiry to work its magic, you must recognize at some level that the word I, though superficially referring to the body and mind, actually points to something much deeper.

6.Let your inquiry be earnest but effortless, without tension or anxiety. Here’s a hint: You definitely won’t find the answer in the file folders of spiritual beliefs you’ve amassed over the years, so look elsewhere, in your actual, present experience.

7.Eventually, the question “Who am I?” reveals the answer, not as a thought or a particular experience but as a vibrant, timeless presence that underlies and infuses every experience

1.Traditionally the five “elements” that make up our body-mind (and the entire material universe)-earth, water, fire, air, “ether”-are each energetically associated with a fixed point on the linings of our nostrils. So it’s possible to influence and transform our body-mind by channeling our breath over or away from these points. . 2. This exercise is a variation of the traditional teaching, since our two points are non-traditional and not elementally potent, and our immediate goal is simply to become better acquainted with our breath. These points (two in each nostril) are the “inner nostril” just beside the septum, and the “outer nostril,” underneath the “wing” (ala) of the nose.

3. Sit comfortably and attend to your breath as it passes in and out through your nostrils. It’s likely you’ll feel a difference between the two; your inhale, for example, is touching your right nostril near the septum, but your left nostril below the wing.

4. Watch for a minute or two, then begin to channel (or “narrow”) your inhales across your inner nostrils. Continue for a minute or two.

5.After breathing normally for 30 seconds, begin to channel (or “widen”) your exhales beneath s your outer nostrils, “widening” your breath. Again continue for a minute or two, then return to normal breathing for 30 seconds.

6.Finally combine the inner and outer breaths and breath slowly for a few minutes. You can practice this version of Svara Yoga during Ujjayi or Kapalabhati (on the exhale).

There are times when you know just what to do, and life seems to rise up and support you and your ideas. And then there are times when it is all a little murky, and you might feel a bit lost. Thankfully, you have your yoga practice to come to—a time to tap into a deep connection with yourself and remember who you really are and what is most important to you. Nothing could be better.

When you bring the spacious awareness you experience in your yoga practice to your whole life, you’ll experience the kind of presence that will make you stop in your tracks, engage your senses, and find joy in daily life. But for most of us, accomplishing that is easier said than done. Often it requires a conscious effort to examine the status quo, push in new directions, and find fresh approaches to evoking that same sense of grounding, connection, and happiness we find on the mat.

Here, then, are 10 possibilities to help you get there. Put these ideas into practice one at a time, or try several at once. You might want to welcome one of them into your life as an offering to the New Year. Whatever approach you choose, here’s to feeling more alive, more present, and more aware of what makes you happy.

1. Get Energized About Your Future

Your yoga practice helps you live in the present, but life in the world demands a certain amount of decision making and planning. What’s your vision of where you want to go and how you’ll get there? When you take a proactive approach, your dreams are more likely to become reality. Knowing what you want is, of course, the first step.

If you need help discovering your life’s path, start by talking it out, says Nancy Wagaman, a life coach in San Diego. You can develop a goal list and create affirmations, she says. You can draw a picture of your future—even pray for guidance. “There are so many ways to energize the new vision you want for your life. The more you energize it, the more you draw that energy to that vision. And the universe tends to support you,” she says.

Of course, your vision may change over time, but the important thing is that you’re an active participant in your future.

HOW TO To find a life coach near you, call (800) 887-7214 or visit findyourcoach.com.

2. Plug Into Your Spiritual Self

Reconnecting with your innermost self can open the doors to an entirely new and unpredictable path. At 33 years old, Susan Nicolas was a yoga teacher living in San Francisco and dating. But her singular focus on meeting a husband and starting a family was causing her heartache. On the advice of friends, she signed up for a vipassana retreat. During 10 days of silence and insight meditation, she came face-to-face with her attachment to getting married and to the unfinished dynamics of past relationships. “Through a lot of struggle and occasional glimpses of true stillness, it seemed the obstacles in my life dissolved,” she says. “I felt more in touch with my true self than I ever had.”

Getting away from routine relationships and environments makes it easier to drop into stillness and examine the undercurrent of your life. Once you do, you can plug into a connection with your divine nature. On retreat, you can also practice accessing your true self so that you can call on it anytime in your life.

A month after her retreat, Nicolas unexpectedly reconnected with an old sweetheart who is now her husband of eight years. “The experience during those sometimes difficult 10 days was like removing a stopper in the mouth of my life,” she says. “Everything simply flowed forth as it should.”

HOW TO Check with a favorite teacher or retreat center for upcoming dates. Even a weekend away that includes meditation, yoga, rest, and silence can be enlightening if you set an intention to retreat.

3. Let Go of the Old

Writing, drawing, doing yoga—there are many pathways to bringing all that’s inside of you out and into the world. For several years, Tiffanie Turner, an architect from San Francisco, felt creatively blocked. As an experiment, Turner began writing three pages in her journal each morning. After a few weeks, she noticed some dramatic changes in her life. “I drop off a lot of baggage in the morning and feel clear for the rest of the day,” she says. Turner found that her anxiety levels decreased, too. “I write down things that worry me in the morning, or a horrible dream that would normally stay with me all day. And when I do, these things pretty much don’t exist for me any more.”

“Once you let go of thoughts that aren’t truly serving you, you’ll feel lighter, more creative,” says Courtney Miller, a yoga teacher in Manhattan, who includes journaling in her yoga workshops. “It’s as if you have more space inside for noticing what makes you happy.”

HOW TO Dust off your journal, commit to a designated time frame each day, and stick to it. If writing isn’t your thing, try drawing your thoughts and feelings.

4. Serve Others

If you haven’t yet noticed, time spent trying to fulfill your desires usually isn’t that fulfilling—even when you achieve or get something that you think you want. But when you turn your attention to the needs of others, you often feel a huge sense of satisfaction. Focusing on other people enables you to be engaged without having to figure out what’s in it for you. And seva (selfless service) can be very empowering, showing you that your actions really do make a difference in the world.

HOW TO You can walk pups at the Humane Society, teach yoga at a community center, or bring your talents to an after-school tutoring program—the possibilities are endless. Many organizations ask for a six-month commitment, though, so it’s important to find something you’re passionate about and have time for. Log on to volunteermatch.org and type in your interests and Zip Code to find a perfect volunteer fit.

5. Honor Your Physical Self

You often hear about spacious awareness in the mind, but it can also be found in your sense of physical self—in the way you move externally, and then process things internally. That’s why San Francisco chiropractor Colin Phipps does a seasonal cleanse about three times a year. He says that the cleanse cultivates awareness by giving him emotional clarity and providing a healthy ritual to follow. “It’s a conscious effort to become much more attuned to my sense of self and where I am in the world,” he says.

HOW TO Elson Haas, an integrative-medicine practitioner and author of The New Detox Diet, recommends a simple winter detox that anyone can follow: For three weeks this winter, base your three meals a day on soups, salads, fruits, and veggies. Drink lots of water and herbal teas, and stay warm. Omit sugar, alcohol, caffeine, wheat, and dairy—and don’t eat between meals. When the seasons change throughout the year, carve out anywhere between 3 and 21 days to repeat some version of the detox. “When you move toward fruits, veggies, and water, you are moving toward things that are less congesting and moving along the pathway to health,” says Haas. Find more detox tips at elsonhaas.com.

6. Be Daring

There’s a lot to be said for having the discipline to stick with a specific style of yoga, getting to know it well, and working through resistance to aspects that you know you don’t like. But exploring a new style of yoga can be revitalizing. Experimentation and play in your practice can teach you to be, err, more “flexible” in all of your life and more aware that there’s always more to learn and explore.

Jay Maldonado, a 29-year-old director of a literacy program who lives in Brooklyn, says her long-term study of one style of yoga left her with a good understanding of alignment but not a lot of spiritual depth. So she pounded the Manhattan pavement looking for something that resonated. She found it at Laughing Lotus, a studio whose philosophy centers on joy and playfulness. “It opened the doors to my creativity and self-expression, and just really enjoying who I am,” she says. “It allowed my yoga practice to become something that’s not so regimented. Instead, it evolves every day.”

Maldonado is also transgendered, and finding a new style helped her greatly during her transition. “As my practice became freer, everything else in my life freed up, and I made the changes I needed to honor myself as a transgendered being,” she says. “When you delve into the scariness of something new, that’s usually the shock that you need to awaken your spiritual practice and passion.”

HOW TO Chant if you normally focus on alignment, or experiment with holding poses for minutes at a time if you’re used to a more flowing practice. For other ideas, go to yogajournal.com/styleguide.

7. Soothe Your Mind

Meditation quiets a busy mind and cultivates a witness who can watch what’s happening in your life with a bit of emotional distance. The benefits are enormous—many meditators say they have more clarity, experience less anxiety, and feel better physically. Most of all, the practice offers an experience of calm and contentment.

Are you willing to commit to meditating every day for 30 days? If so, you might find your whole life transformed. “An agitated mind squanders such an amazing amount of energy,” says Richard Faulds, a senior meditation teacher at Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. “If you can still the surface of the mind, you’ll say ‘Wow! This is who I really am!’ You get a taste of something that’s really quite profound. You will want to sustain it.”

HOW TO Faulds recommends meditating on the breath for 20 minutes each day. To do this, follow his guidelines: Find a comfortable seated position. Bring yourself to the present moment by breathing, relaxing, feeling, watching, and allowing any thoughts, emotions, or physical sensations to come and go. Instead of reacting to those things, simply be aware of them. Deepen the breath. Watch the breath. Let go of all technique and come into effortless being. You can find another Kripalu Yoga guided meditation at yogajournal.com/kripalumed.

8. Notice Your Surroundings

When you’re reassessing life, it’s tempting to spend a lot of time focusing on yourself. But it can be transformative to connect with the world around you, to meet your neighbors, to enjoy the changing of the seasons, to take an interest in what’s happening in your community. Simply being aware of your environs creates a sense of interconnectedness—and suddenly you can’t not care about how your actions affect people and your environment.

One way to feel that connection is to make a commitment to eating seasonal and locally grown foods. “Once people become dedicated seasonal eaters, suddenly they become aware of things like water issues, ranchers’ issues, and political issues in their community,” says Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers’ Markets. Plus, these foods taste better, do less harm to the environment by reducing resources needed for shipping, and put you in touch with the cycles of nature.

HOW TO Eating seasonally and supporting farmers is as easy and delicious as visiting your local farmers’ market or joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program—a fancy term for a farm that grows and delivers produce near your home. Visit the United States Department of Agriculture’s website (ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm) and click on your state to locate a local farmers’ market, or check out localharvest.org/csa to find a CSA.

9. Create Community

Karen Habib had been plagued for years by a feeling of emptiness that she couldn’t quite name. Habib, who lives in Manhattan and worked in corporate marketing at that time, craved meaning, community, and a place where she could feel grounded amid the hustle and bustle of New York. So when the opportunity arose for her to move into the Integral Yoga Institute in the West Village, she went for it.

When you live in close quarters with other people, they can certainly press your buttons. But when that happens, Habib thinks of a statement attributed to Integral Yoga founder, Swami Satchidananda: “The stones in a river start out rough, but with the current continually bumping and polishing them, they end up being beautiful.” Since moving into the institute, Habib has gained clarity to pursue a life-long interest in interior design. She has also discovered a renewed sense of vitality, strength, and gratitude. With her yoga community, she now has a sacred center to come home to, daily yoga classes and workshops at her disposal, and a place to meet like-minded yogis she can relate to. “When I walk into the center, I breathe and sit to do pranayama and think, ‘God, am I lucky!’”

HOW TO While you may not choose to move into an ashram, you can find some kind of sangha (community) at your local studio or through a favorite teacher. Many studios offer immersion programs that meet weekly to discuss philosophy, practice asana, chant, and spark renewed vitality, strength, and gratitude for the practices. Or you can organize your own group by inviting friends, posting flyers that give information about the meetings, and hosting yoga meet-ups in your town (visit meetup.com to post events).

10. Make a Nature Date

It’s easy to overlook the most obvious accessible antidote to stress, worry, and busyness: the outdoors. Sense the earth beneath your feet, watch birds soar, feel the wind on your face—these are all reminders that your troubles, and even your joys, need not be all consuming; you are part of something bigger.

Carol Tonelli, a Spanish interpreter living in San Francisco, heads to the ocean for a swim when she wants to reconnect. “There, I can surrender to the water, to the sun, to the flow of life,” she says. Immersing herself in natural beauty, says Tonelli, allows her to release stress and to access a deep sense of serenity that carries her through tougher times.

HOW TO Whether you decide to head for the mountains, streams, or sea, take time out of your schedule to make a nature date once a week. When you’re outdoors, allow your thoughts and concerns to float away like clouds. Stay present to the natural beauty that surrounds you; cultivate a sense of gratitude for the abundance that is right in front of your nose.

It might be surprising that the Sanskrit name Utkatasana is sometimes translated as Fierce Seat or Powerful Pose. The asana looks fairly straightforward and simple—you bend the knees as if preparing to sit on a chair. It looks so much like someone sitting on an imaginary chair that it’s commonly called Chair Pose.

But rather than let you relax back into a La-Z-Boy, Utkatasana requires you to support yourself in a standing squat. This action engages the muscles of your legs and back—and is arguably the single best movement for strengthening the thighs, both the quadriceps and the hamstrings, as well as the erector spinae muscles in the back. Leg-strengthening squats are workout staples at the gym, where people often do them holding weights. Utkatasana is similarly strengthening but should generate less wear and tear on your joints over the long haul.

Supporting your weight in Utkatasana is challenging. It’s recommended for athletes involved in sports requiring strong legs, and it helps prevent a loss of muscle mass as you age. In some versions of Utkatasana, such as in Sun Salutation B in the Ashtanga practice, feet and knees are kept together and palms are pressed overhead. Other traditions keep the legs apart, which makes balancing easier, and the arms parallel, which puts less stress on the shoulders. My teacher, the late Esther Myers of Toronto, believed a wider stance to be more appropriate for most Western bodies—and especially for women, whose hips tend to be broader than men’s. So I practice and teach the pose this way.

Pelvic Power

The pelvic region controls the flow of energy along the spine. For optimum energy flow, the pelvis must be properly aligned. The idea is to keep the pelvis balanced and centered as the knees bend and the buttocks release down, while you simultaneously keep the torso lifted and the spine long.

To experience the action of the pelvis, stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with feet hip-width apart, knees soft, and hands on your hips. Place your fingers on the pointy protuberances at the front of the hip bones (the anterior superior iliac spine, or ASIS) and tilt your pelvis forward and backward a few times. Tilt your pelvis forward by moving your pubic bone back. Notice how your lower back sways and compresses into an arch. Next, tilt your pelvis back by tucking your tailbone under. Notice how your abdomen becomes tight and constricted. To find a healthy balance between these two extremes, do both movements but more subtly. Gently move your tailbone slightly forward as you move your pubic bone back. These two bones seem to move toward each other and find a balanced middle ground where the lower back is long and uncompressed and the abdomen is firm but not gripped. To support the lower back, draw the belly in and up toward the spine. Don’t suck in your gut by tightening your abdominal muscles. Instead, let the action be a gentle lift.

Now, retain this balanced pelvic alignment in a “mini-chair” pose. Slightly bend the knees—be sure they track out directly over your toes—and lower your buttocks an inch or two. Keep your chest lifted, shoulders relaxed, and feet pressed evenly into the floor. Stay here for two or three breaths, keeping your spine long and pelvis stable, then return to Mountain Pose.

Greeting Gravity

Utkatasana becomes more challenging the deeper you squat; the lower you go, the harder your body must work to resist gravity. Holding the legs and torso upright as the buttocks descend demands much of, and ultimately strengthens, the thigh muscles. The pose can therefore present a paradox for people with knee problems. Although strengthening the muscles that support the knee can ultimately benefit this vulnerable joint, squatting too deeply can strain the knee—particularly if you have had any injuries. People with knee concerns are advised to stay with the modified versions and avoid excessively bending the knees.

To help build strength in the thighs, first practice the supported Utkatasana against a wall. Stand with your back against a wall, your feet shoulder-width apart, and your heels 12 to 18 inches from the wall. Keep your knees slightly bent and rest your hands on the top of your thighs. Press your feet into the earth and lengthen your spine by extending up through the top of your head. Let the back of your head, your shoulder blades, and the back of your pelvis rest lightly against the wall. Bring your pelvis into balance—tailbone and pubic bone moving toward each other—so the lower back retains its slight natural curve. Inhale length into your spine and draw your belly in and up.

On an exhalation, slowly bend your knees and release your buttocks toward the earth. Extend your spine and lift your chest as you slightly slant your torso forward, being sure to hinge from the hips and to keep good pelvic alignment, with the back of the pelvis supported by the wall. Let your hands slide down your thighs toward your knees. Stay as relaxed and as lifted as possible and continue to breathe slowly and deeply through your descent. When you reach a place where you feel challenge but not strain, stop and stay in the pose for two or three breaths, being sure to soften your face, shoulders, and throat. Do not lower your hips below your knees, and do not let your bent knees extend past your toes. To come out of the pose, press your feet into the earth as you inhale, straighten your legs, and slide back up the wall.

Ignite the Fire

Next, try the pose away from the wall with a modification that extends the arms forward, providing a nice counterbalance for the upper body as the buttocks descend. Stay with this version of Utkatasana if you have shoulder problems or find the full pose too intense.

To do a standing squat, stand with your feet hip-width apart. On an inhalation, bring your arms out in front of you at shoulder height, palms facing down. The forward position helps with balance; extending your arms forward is easier than holding them over your head.

On an exhalation, bend your knees and drop your buttocks toward the floor. As you squat, let your body angle forward. Keep good pelvic alignment, with the chest lifted and the crown of the head extending skyward. Move toward having the thighs parallel to the floor, breathing as you hold the pose for two or three breaths. To release, press the feet down on an inhalation and straighten the legs.

To perform the full pose, stand with your legs hip-width apart and bring your arms up overhead as you inhale, palms facing each other. Relax your shoulders down away from your ears and gaze softly toward the horizon. On an exhalation, bend your knees slowly and drop your buttocks toward the floor, maintaining a balanced pelvis as you let the body angle slightly forward. Remember to draw the belly in and up, hinge from the hips, bend the knees directly over the toes, and root down evenly through your feet. Keep your head in line with your spine so that your gaze is forward and slightly down.

Focus on dropping your sitting bones down while simultaneously lifting your heart as you tune in to the inner sensations of the posture. You may begin to feel a fiery heat in your belly and a sense of lightness in your head. Challenge yourself to sit deeply, but don’t cross the edge into strain or tension. Continue to sink deeper on exhalation and lengthen up on inhalation. When you’re ready to come out, press down with your feet, straighten your legs, and relax your arms. Then hinge forward into a cooling Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) for several breaths.

Remember to be patient with yourself and consistent with your practice. Don’t worry if the posture feels awkward at first—in fact, one translation of the Sanskrit name is Awkward Pose. Over time, you’ll make progress—and be rewarded with strength, stamina, and powerful legs that can take you surely and steadily wherever you choose to go.

1.Start on your hands and knees in a “tabletop” position. Make sure your knees are set directly below your hips and your wrists, elbows and shoulders are in line and perpendicular to the floor. Center your head in a neutral position, eyes looking at the floor. As you exhale, round your spine toward the ceiling, making sure to keep your shoulders and knees in position. Release your head toward the floor, but don’t force your chin to your chest. 2.Inhale, coming back to neutral “tabletop” position on your hands and knees.

 3.This pose is often paired with Cow Pose on the inhale for a gentle, flowing vinyasa

As hard as you try, you can’t always keep the colds and flus of winter from stuffing up your head and slowing down your body. Before you know it, you’re wondering if you should attempt your regular yoga practice or give up and go to bed. Here’s what I suggest.

LISTEN CLOSE Check in with your body before practice. If you’re wiped out, you could make things worse by pushing through your normal routine, so try a gentle or restorative practice instead and skip strong breathing techniques. Once your energy improves, you can gradually return to a more vigorous practice even if you still have a cough or your nose is stuffy. If you feel worse after practicing, it’s a sign that you’ve probably done too much.

TREAT YOURSELF If you feel you need to take something for your symptoms, avoid antibiotics; they are worthless for colds, and even over-the-counter cold remedies aren’t very practical, since many contain five drugs when all you need is one or two. It makes more sense to take individual remedies, like slippery elm lozenges for a sore throat or acetaminophen for pain. For nasal congestion, add a few drops of eucalyptus oil to boiling water and inhale the vapors. Although it’s still not clear how effective echinacea, zinc lozenges, vitamin C, and homeopathic preparations can be, you can still try them, since they are all generally very safe.

CLEAR YOUR HEAD A stuffy nose, while not serious, can really put a crimp in your practice, especially if you do a lot of Ujjayi Pranayama (Victorious Breath). To unstuff yourself, use jala neti, a yogic nasal cleansing technique: Put a quarter teaspoon of noniodized salt and eight ounces of warm water in a neti pot. Standing over a sink, tip your head to one side and insert the spout into the upper nostril, allowing the water to flow into your nose and drain from the other nostril. Repeat on the other side. You can try this several times a day if you’ve got a cold. Jala neti can be helpful right before pranayama or meditation practice, or even asana.

SOUND OUT YOUR SINUSES Vibrations from humming have been shown to open the sinuses and let phlegm drain, which can relieve pressure and may even help stave off a bacterial infection of the sinuses. Try chanting Om, or, for nasal congestion, experiment with the pranayama practice of Bhramari: Press your lips together and make the sound of a buzzing bee.

STAY UPRIGHT If your head is stuffed up or you’re feeling tired, modify or skip inversions like Headstand and Handstand. Even Shoulderstand can worsen nasal congestion and head pressure.

cold SUPPORT YOURSELF Even restful poses like Savasana (Corpse Pose) aren’t easy when you’re congested, so instead of lying flat, support your back on a bolster running lengthwise from your lower spine to your head, with a folded blanket under the head and neck if needed. This makes breathing easier, and it’s more energizing. Supta Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle Pose) can also be done with back support.

Prasarita Padottanasana (Wide-Legged Standing Forward Bend) is just what its English translation implies—a wide-stance forward bend. In Sanskrit, prasarita padottanasana literally means “spread-out-feet intense stretch.” There are two versions in Iyengar Yoga and four in the Ashtanga system, but here we’ll focus on Prasarita Padottanasana I, hereafter referred to as Prasarita.

Not surprisingly for a forward bend, Prasarita stretche s the backs of the legs and, because of its wide stance, the inner groins. Because the head is brought lower than the heart, the pose can serve as a substitute for Sirsasana (Headstand) for those with neck issues. Many benefits of inversions—especially bathing the poor old tired brain with freshly oxygenated blood to perk it up—accrue to Prasarita without any weight-bearing stress on the neck. In general, Prasarita is a good warm-up for other wide-stance standing poses such as the Virabhadrasana (Warrior) poses and Parsvakonasana (Side Angle Pose).

Take a Stance

Begin by finding the most appropriate stance (the distance between the feet) for you, which will depend on the length of your legs; shorter people won’t have as wide a stance as taller folks will have. To determine your proper stance, start in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) with your arms stretched out straight to the side, parallel to the floor. Step your feet apart until each is approximately below the same-side wrist. If you can’t easily touch the floor in a standing forward bend with straight knees, use a couple of yoga blocks to support your hands. Never force yourself into a forward bend; rounding your torso forward from your belly to get your hands on the floor is counterproductive and potentially injurious. (Don’t be stubborn—use blocks.)

Prasarita provides an opportunity for you to become aware of your feet, especially the arches. Stand with your feet parallel to each other and align the tips of your big toes. Lift all of your toes off the floor and see how that enlivens and lifts your inner arches. Feel too how your outer heels press more firmly into the floor. These actions are important, so spend some time integrating them into your awareness. As you soften your toes back onto the floor, imagine that you are lifting your inner ankles strongly up toward your inner groins to sustain the action of the inner arches.

Rest your hands on your hips, inhale, and lean your upper torso back. Lift your chest a bit more and, on the next exhalation, tip your torso forward from your hips, maintaining as much length in your front torso as you can. Touch your fingertips lightly on the floor (or on blocks) directly below your shoulders, arms straight and perpendicular to the ground.

Now prepare to open the inner groins and teach the legs how to work in the full pose. With your fingertips still lightly resting on the floor or blocks, imagine that you are lifting your inner left ankle to “charge” the arch, and press your outer left heel firmly to the floor. Without losing that lift and that contact, slowly bend your right knee and shift your torso to the right. As you do this, your left leg will move closer to the floor, but energetically it should move to the left, away from the bending right leg. Has the weight on your left foot shifted toward and partially collapsed your inner arch? If so, unbend your right knee slightly, press your outer left heel down, then bend your right knee again. Inhale, slowly straighten your right knee, and bring your pelvis back to center between your feet. Take a few breaths and repeat on the left.

Go back and forth a few times more, lingering on each side to slowly stretch your inner groins and thighs. Alternatively, you can slowly but more steadily seesaw right and left, smoothly swinging your pelvis like a pendulum and making sure that before you bend your knee, you plant the opposite heel. When you have stretched enough, straighten both knees and return to center with your fingertips resting on the floor (or on the blocks). Bring your torso upright on an inhalation, take a rest, then bend forward again—or, if you feel ready to move directly into the full pose, keep on reading.

Fold Forward

Press your fingertips into the floor, straighten your arms, lift your chest up and forward, and gaze at the wall in front of you. Push both legs away from each other and widen the inner groins, then arch your back. If you’re stiff, you may have to bend your knees slightly to create the arch. If you’re flexible, don’t overarch your lower back. Imagine that the top of your sternum is moving away from the floor and forward, out across the room to the opposite wall. Press your palms flat against the floor and imagine pushing it back toward your legs. This is stage 1.

Next, slowly walk your hands back between your feet, lining up your fingertips with the tips of your toes. Your elbows should still be relatively straight, your sternum still lifting up and forward. This is stage 2. Continue pushing your hands down and back.

For stage 3, exhale, bend your elbows, and release your long front torso from your hips into a deep forward bend. Keep your bent arms fairly parallel to each other and don’t let your elbows splay out to the sides. At this point, you might be able to rest the crown of your head on the floor. If not, let your head hang or put something under it (such as a block or a folded blanket) as a support. Have you forgotten your outer heels? Bend your knees slightly, reaffirm your outer heels, and again straighten your knees. Stay there for a minute or two, then lift and lengthen your front torso slightly, bring your hands to your hips, and lift your torso up on an inhalation. Step or hop your feet together.

Prasarita has several arm and hand variations. Instead of pressing your hands on the floor, you can reach out and hook your ankles, with your thumbs on the inner ankles and your fingers wrapped around the outer ankles. Pull in and up on them, as though you’re trying to slide your feet together, and simultaneously imagine you are lifting yourself off the floor. Use the resistance of your legs to help yourself lift your chest, and then arch your back as you did previously. Then bend your elbows sharply out to the sides and gently pull your torso into the forward bend (see figure on left). Stay in that position for 30 seconds to a minute. With your hands on your hips, come up on an inhalation.

Arm Yourself

Another arm variation starts in wide-stance Tadasana. Clasp your hands behind your back and stretch your arms down toward the floor. Continue to stretch them, inhale and lift your chest, then exhale and tip your torso forward toward the floor (see figure on left). Now shrug your shoulders slightly, lift your hands a few inches away from your pelvis and, holding them in place, draw your shoulders away from your ears by reaching back through your arms. Proceed in this fashion: Shrug your shoulders, lift your hands a few inches higher, hold them in place, then draw your shoulders down, away from your ears. Eventually your shoulders will ask you to stop. This exercise is easier if your palms are open and loosely clasped, and more challenging if you press them together. Hold that pose for 30 seconds, then lower your arms and unclasp your hands. Cross your arms in front of you for a break. Finally, reverse your fingers and repeat.

Prasarita can quickly get your blood pumping and your legs working. For deeper benefits spend several minutes in it, maybe with your head lightly resting on the floor or a block as you breathe deeply. Remember to pay attention to your inner arches and outer heels to energetically charge this great pose and intensify its effects. As you advance in doing Prasarita and find your head easily reaching the floor, you may want to experiment with lifting your legs into Sirsasana II (Tripod Headstand). But even if you never invert from Prasarita, you can use the pose to turn your perspective upside down and to give your legs a really good stretch.

1.Come onto the floor on your hands and knees. Set your knees directly below your hips and your forearms on the floor with your shoulders directly above your wrists. Firmly press your palms together and your forearms into the floor.

2.Curl your toes under, then exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and press it lightly toward the pubis. Against this resistance, lift the sitting bones toward the ceiling, and from your inner ankles draw the inner legs up into the groins.

3.Continue to press the forearms actively into the floor. Firm your shoulder blades against your back, then widen them away from the spine and draw them toward the tailbone. Hold your head between the upper arms; don’t let it hang or press heavily against the floor

4.You can straighten your knees if you like, but if your upper back rounds it’s best to keep them bent. Continue to lengthen your tailbone away from the pelvis and lift the top of your sternum away from the floor.

5.Stay between 30 seconds to one minute. Then release your knees to the floor with an exhale.