Utkatasana

Chair (Fierce) Pose (long-held variation)



Stand at the front of your mat, feet together. Bend your knees and touch the floor with your fingertips. Send your sitting bones back and wide, root your tailbone long, and, lifting through your lower belly, roll up with bent legs until your chest and arms reach for the sky. If this becomes hard on your neck, open your arms to the sides or press the palms together at your chest.

Look down at your feet--if you can't see your toes, shift the pelvis back until you can. Lift all 10 toes to activate your inner arches, and as you ground the ball and heel down, draw energy up from the Earth to help sustain you. Breathe slowly and deeply.

Stay in this pose until you think you need to come out. Then, stay for another 3-5 breaths. Afterward, take a few moments each in Standing Forward Bend and Child's Pose to stretch your legs and low back, neutralize the spine, and take the time you need to process.





Revolved Chair Pose (Parivrtta Utkatasana)

Still sitting in your chair, scoot away from your desk and bring your feet together flat on the floor. Lift your low belly in and up toward your chest to support your spine as you lift your butt off the chair. Inhale and reach your arms overhead. Exhale, bring your palms together at your chest and twist your upper body, bringing your right elbow onto the left knee.

Keep your tailbone long and your belly engaged as you take 5 inhales and exhales in this position. Then inhale your arms to center, and switch sides.

Between sides, or after both sides, you can bring your fists into the opposite elbow creases, and fold forward over your legs. Straighten them as much as is comfortable to release tension from your lower back and improve focus.


Ankle-to-Knee Chair(Eka Pada Galavasana Preparation)

This pose leads to taking flight in the arm balance of Eka Pada Galavasana, but for our purposes, we're going to start where we are. Running too fast into the Void can cause you to miss out on the information coming at you from the core, and from your environment, a conversation that needs your full attention.

Come to the front of your mat, feet hip-distance apart. Bend both knees and generate as much lift from your lower belly as from your lower back. Keep your spine long as you ground into your left foot and lift your right knee mindfully into your chest. Don't rush; rather, make every moment of this pose an opportunity to find balance again.

Once you're stable, cross your right ankle over your left knee. Roll the thigh outward so your right knee lowers, and sit down deeper. Bring your hands to the chest, palms together in anjali mudra, which celebrates your connection to the Divine, or universal energy. Offer your heart forward as the hips move back to anchor you in this new place of balance and freedom.

Take 5-10 breaths here, then return to Chair Pose, and fold forward over bent or straight legs for a few moments before repeating the balance on the other side.