10 Yoga Poses for Your Inner Child
Rediscover your inner child with these fun poses!
Remember how carefree you were back when you were a kid? Childhood is full of fun and discovery, and when we become adults it’s easy to start to neglect that side of ourselves. Those feelings of curiosity, joy, and playfulness are often replaced by cynicism and fear as we experience the daily stresses of adulthood.
The good news is it’s totally possible to rediscover your inner child through the practice of yoga! The ten poses below are fun tension-relievers designed to ignite your inner child once again.
Lion’s Breath
How to Practice Lion’s Breath:
- Find a comfortable seat
- Place your hands, palms face down, on your knees with fingers extended out
- Big inhale through your nose
- As you exhale, open your mouth wide, stick out your tongue as far out as possible, and make a loud “ha” sound
- Repeat 4-6 times
Child’s Pose
How to Practice Child’s Pose:
- Begin on all fours, in Table Top Pose
- Bring your hips to your heels (decide if knees together or knees wide feels best for you)
- Allow your torso to melt over your legs, bringing your forehead as close to the mat as possible
- Extend your arms out in front of you, palms face down
- Hold for 5-10 breaths
Balancing Butterfly Pose
How to Practice Balancing Butterfly Pose:
- With feet together, find a squat and place hands on the floor in front of your feet
- Turn your knees outward while keeping balls of the feet and heels together
- Lift the head and torso up and bring hands to knees or to Prayer Mudra in front of the heart
- Hold for 5-10 breaths
Supine Twist Pose
How to Practice Supine Twist Pose:
- Find Corpse Pose
- Bring your right knee into your chest and give it a big, loving hug
- Drop your right knee over the left, crossing your body
- Extend your right arm out in the opposite direction of your knee, and allow your gaze to follow
- Keep your shoulder blades pressing toward the mat
- Hold for 5-10 breaths on each side
Twisted Lizard Pose
How to Practice Twisted Lizard Pose:
- Find Low Lunge Pose
- Wiggle your right foot to the outside of your right hand, towards the right edge of your mat
- Roll onto the outside edge of your right foot, allowing the right knee to move towards the ground
- Twist from your core, sweeping your right arm back
- Bend at your left knee, pointing your toes up toward the sky and reach for your foot (option to use a yoga strap)
- Pull the foot in toward the body to stretch the thigh
- Hold for 5 breaths on each side
Sugarcane Pose
How to Practice Sugarcane Pose:
- From Forward Fold, extend your left leg behind you, coming into a one leg forward fold
- Open your hips, stacking your left hip on top of your right hip
- Bring your left heel towards your glute
- Reach back with your left hand and take a hold of your lifted foot
- Open your chest toward the ceiling as you draw your shoulder blades away from your ears
- Hold for 5 breaths on each side
Firefly Pose
How to Practice Firefly Pose:
- Find a Standing Forward Fold with the feet mat-width apart and a generous bend in your knees
- Bring your fingertips between your legs to your mat behind your heels, wiggling back until your shoulders are behind your legs
- Place the palms of your starfish hands on the floor just behind your heels, with the fingers pointed forward towards the feet
- Bend the knees deeply and drop the hips down toward the ground
- Shift your center of gravity as you sit back on the chair your arms create
- Extend the legs as much as you can, lifting one foot at a time
- Make your arms as straight as possible
- Keep the chest lifted and the gaze forward, spread the toes and smile
- Hold for 5 breaths
Wheel Pose
How to Practice Wheel Pose:
- Set up for Bridge Pose (your feet close to your glutes, hip-width distance apart)
- Place your hands alongside your ears, elbows to the sky and fingers pointing back towards your body
- On an exhale, firmly press into your hands and feet to lift your hips skyward
- Engage your core rather than your glutes
- Draw your shoulders away from your ears
- Hold for 5-10 breaths
Wild Thing Pose
How to Practice Wild Thing Pose:
- Find a three-legged dog with your left foot lifted
- Bend your left leg, and drop your foot to the ground (similar to Wheel Pose)
- Press into your right hand as you lift your hips and heart
- Rotate your left foot so your toes are pointing out and in line with your knee
- Lift your left arm up and over, and gaze towards your left fingertips
- Hold for 5 breaths on each side
Happy Baby Pose
How to Practice Happy Baby Pose:
- Lying on your back, bring your knees to your chest
- Grab the pinky toe side of each foot and separate the feet wide
- Stack your ankles over your knees, bringing your knees toward your underarms
- Pull down on your flexed feet while keeping your tailbone drawing towards your mat
- Rock from side-to-side or straighten one leg at a time for a deep hamstring stretch
- Hold for 5-10 breaths
All images courtesy of Elisha Thompson.
