How To Do Balasana (Child’s Pose) & Why Should You Practise It?

Child’s pose, also known as shishuasana or balasana, is a yogasana that is usually taught in early days of yoga classes. Balasana or shishuasana is the portmanteau of bala or shishu (meaning child) and asana (seat or position). A resting pose, this pose helps in relaxing the whole body. Virasana is performed as the preparatory pose for this yoga pose.
Here are the steps of doing balasana, its health benefits and precautions.

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• Take a mat and comfortably kneel down on it.
• Separating your knees as wide as hips, sit on your heels such that your toes touch each other.
• As you breathe out, lay your torso between your thighs.
• Nestling down the inner thighs, narrow your hip points toward the navel and broaden your sacrum across back of pelvis.
• Extend your tailbone away from back of pelvis while raising the skull base away from neck’s back.
• Keep your hands on floor beside your hips keeping your palms up and releasing the shoulder fronts toward floor.
• Feel your front shoulder weight pulling the shoulder blades wide across your back.
• Maintain this position for 30 seconds to few minutes.

The beginners can try a deep forward bend while resting torso on the thighs. You can maintain this pose from 1 to 3 minutes. As you come up, stretch out your front torso and then do an inhalation lift from the tailbone pressing it down into the pelvis.

Why To Practise Child’s Pose?

• Helps in stretching the hips, ankles and thighs.
• Helps in relieving back and neck pain while supporting head and torso.
• Helps in getting rid of stiffness in the body.
• Regulates blood flow in the whole body.
• Aids digestion.
• Improves functioning of internal organs.
• Declutters the mind.
• Relieves stress, fatigue and headache.
• Relaxes the body.
• Calms the brain.

Who Should Not Practise This Pose?

• Do NOT practise this pose if you have problem of high blood pressure (BP).
• If you have a knee injury, do not practise it without guidance of an experienced yoga instructor.
• Do NOT do this pose during diarrhoea.
• Women should avoid it during pregnancy.