Yoga Pose - Standing Forward Fold ‘Uttanasana’
Another asana in the Sun Salutation Flow is “Uttanasana,” the standing forward fold pose.
As part of your yoga flow or as a stand-alone pose, Uttanasana offers you the opportunity to calm the mind while relieving stress and anxiety and helping you feel more grounded. It also activates your base, or root, chakra Muladhara, your energy centre that promotes feelings of security, being more grounded and in touch with your sense of survival.
Uttanasana also helps stimulate your liver and kidneys, improving digestion while physically lengthening hamstrings, calves, and hip flexes and strengthening your thighs and knees.
How to practice Uttanasana
To begin, stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), placing your hands on your hips.
Take a breath in, and as you exhale, begin to fold forward from the hips, gently pressing your buttocks back and relaxing the knees as you lengthen into the spine.
Let your hands begin to slide down your legs, arriving wherever is most comfortable for you.
Allow your head to be heavy and relax through the neck. You may like to cross your forearms, holding onto opposite elbows or allow your hands to rest further towards the ankles or the floor.
Gently sway from side to side to release more deeply into the pose and hold for a few deep breaths.
If you are experiencing too strong a sensation in your lower back, simply bend the knees more deeply and rest your forearms on your thighs while allowing the head to be heavy and the neck to relax.
If you are folding forward, release the hands towards the floor, take a breath in, lift the chest while looking forward, lifting up through the kneecaps.
While your shoulders are released downwards, exhale, fold forward, drawing the belly gently back, allow the crown of the head to relax towards the floor and gaze towards your shins.
Try doing this a few times, finding length on the inhale and relaxing down as you exhale.
To come out of the pose, press the feet firmly into the ground, keeping the legs strong, bring the hands to the hips, inhale to come up to halfway with your spine parallel to the floor, exhale come all the way to standing in Tadasana.
Essential Oils to Use with Uttanasana
“Standing Forward Bend, “Uttanasana,” is a grounding pose that helps to open the base or root chakra, Muladhara in Sanskrit, relating to security, grounding, and survival instinct.
The Urban Goddess Blend, as part of our Sacred Yoga Scents, amplifies your yoga practice. Essential oils enhance the vibration of intention, creating Sankalpa.
Urban Goddess strengthens Uttanasana as it calms the mind, relieves stress, improves digestion, and reduces anxiety. A blend of rose geranium, lemon myrtle and pink grapefruit. Urban Goddess also reawakens your divine feminine essence, boosts manifesting power, restores balance, and promotes confidence.
Rose Geranium: This is a type of geranium not related to the rose family. It helps balance hormones, enhances mood, and promotes feelings of optimism and stability. Ancient Egyptians used it for healthy glowing skin.
Lemon Myrtle: An Australian native tree indigenous to the sub-tropical rainforests of Queensland. It is the world’s richest known natural source of citral. This delicious lemonade-smelling scented essential oil helps boost the immune system. Described as a blend of lemongrass, lime, and lemon. A powerful antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiseptic and anti-fungal, more so than tea tree. A great tool to have to support your health. Herbal tea made from a lemon myrtle leaf in hot water is a tasty antimicrobial drop.
Pink Grapefruit: Invigorates and awakens. Made from the fruit's rind, it aids digestion, curbs hunger pains and reduces cellulite. Pink grapefruit energises the metabolism and mood.
To use the Urban Goddess roll-on balm, simply apply it to pulse points or place a few drops into a diffuser to enhance and gain the full benefit of your yoga practice.”
Sharen Turner, Secret Scent Aromatherapy