Pigeon Pose / Eka Pada Rajakapotasana

Benefits:

- Creates stability and flexibility in your hips - Releases tension in hip flexors and lower back - Stimulates abdominal organs - Aides digestion and circulation - Opens your heart chakra

Pigeon Pose has been my favorite pose since I learned it in a yin class maybe 8 years ago. Whenever I first come into the pose, I notice what parts of my body are more stiff and what parts are more fluid. It’s fascinating how much our bodies can change every day. I start seated in pigeon with my heart open. Breath by breath I slowly forward fold over my front knee. Then I wiggle my back leg to extend more behind me. After I find my comfortable edge, where I feel a stretch and ease-never forced, I find ten long steady breathes. Then, from the base of my spine I roll back up into seated pigeon making sure my head is the last to rise. Sometimes I like to find a downward dog and go straight to my other side. But more often than not, I like to lay down in corpse pose and notice the difference from my right side to my left side body. Notice the fluidity and length on one side and compression on the other. Then finally, I like to even out the pose on the other side of my body. I love everything about this pose, the time it takes to get into it, the benefits I can notice right away, and the length and ease it gives my body.