This beautiful pose, which allows the physical body to be safely held by Mother Earth, is an amazing stretch for the spine and legs. Trapped emotions held in your body influence your thoughts, emotions, and create pain. Being held on the earth and breathing through this posture allows your center to reconnect with the divine, creating a flow of prana from your roots up to your crown.

During the posture, envision your spine with an empty core of light within. To begin the posture, use your breath to energetically connect to your root chakra (the cervix for women and the perineum for men). This is the cave of mooladhara where your kundalini energy lives. Create and envision a swirling movement within the space of the roots and pelvis. As you revolve into this posture, remain soft and pliable. This allows healing energy to come up the spine and through the heart, throat, and third eye to connect at your crown.

No matter how much you’re able to involve the legs with this stretch, the spine is primary and the breath is always the key. Lie on the earth and adjust the body to relax as you attempt to lie your entire spine flat. It is important to soften the navel area and have the lower lumbar flat on the floor, not arched. You can adjust your pelvis to create this flatter approach. On an inhale, lift your right leg up to 90 degrees. Ideally, you would hold the big toe, but you can simply start by supporting the back of the calf muscle if flexibility or proportion create a challenge. The spine should remain flat.