Sukhasana - Easy Pose

Sukhasana - Easy Pose 

Easy Pose is a seated posture and one of the first and most important postures to learn to practice.

Sukhasana is a traditional meditative posture and is available to practice for most people and body types, although it can take some getting used to ie; sitting on the floor, opening the hips, keeping the spine long and perhaps even sitting on a cushion.

For practitioners who can not sit on the floor even on a cushion, bolster, pillow, or block you can practice a modified baddha konasana or butterfly pose by placing the souls of the feet together while seated in a chair in order to open the hips.

For practitioners who can sit on the floor it is advisable to begin practicing this posture with a cushion to encourage a slight pelvic tilt and elevation of the hips.

It may take some time to feel comfortable in this posture as the psoas or hip flexors begin to soften, open and allow you to sit in this posture for prolonged periods of time.

Benefits of this posture include:

• awakening a meditative state,

• releasing tension and stress from the hip flexors,

• aligning the spine, tuning into our bodies and breath. 

Tahawa Eli demonstrating Sukhasana:

• Sit on your cushion, blanket or block, the aim is to be comfortable Sukhasana means Effortless or Easy Seat(posture)

• This is similar to being “cross-legged” but not quite, sit with one shin, ankle or foot in front of the other parallel to each other on the floor, the hips are externally rotated and the knees are aiming towards the ground

• Engage the belly button and straighten the spine, roll the shoulders back and down allowing the chest to open, the chin is parallel to the floor and the gaze is forward

• You can sit with your hands in a mudra, palms open or face down on the knees, or one palm up and one palm face down

• Sit in this posture and find your centre, breathe for 10 deep slow breaths or meditate in this posture for as long as you can, at some point it can be good to switch which leg is in front of the other in order to balance the opening of the hips