HAPPY BABY BY: PREMADASA GANGADEEN
Whenever I consider this pose, I can instantly go back into the feeling of embodying it. I’ve practiced it many times, both in a passing flow of postures as well as in an extended hold. It’s been a static hold at times and sometimes a dynamic hold of rocking up and down the spine or side to side at other times. I’ve practiced it since the early days of my life and there is a good chance you have as well! This is a posture which feels the greatest for me as it suits my physical disposition and the story of my body. It also offers some great relief to my back, spine, hips and sacrum. I’m sure that on deeper or more subtle levels it is also serving me in so many ways. Usually when I teach this posture, Ananda Balasana, it figures toward the end of my class as a lead-up to Savasana or Yoga Nidra. I do so to offer an opportunity for a final release of tension and as a reminder that sometimes it is best to assume a child-like perspective within our awareness. This posture implies a vulnerability, surrender and trust toward being nurtured by the posture, the practice and potentially the sense of being cared for by a great benevolent energy within this moment. In many ways it resembles a reversion from the material aspects being a physical manifestation back to a non-physical entity once surrounded by silence and pure awareness or no-thing. There are many variations of Happy Baby and they all will serve you well provided that you maintain a loving and sacred approach to yourself within the posture. Be sure to breathe deeply yet softly in and out of the body as though you are the tiny and precious babe you once were earlier on. Here’s a basic step-by-step instruction to finding yourself within this pose. Enjoy!
