🜁 Asana of the Day: Adho Mukha Svanasana — Downward Facing Dog

Here, the body bows. The spine lengthens, the crown drapes towards the Earth, and the heels root down to the soil. It is more than alignment; it is humility, a gesture of reverence, honoring Earth as teacher.

In yogic lineage, Adho Mukha Svanasana is often a place of return, a posture between postures, a moment of recalibration. It is both strength and surrender, effort and rest.

How to Practice Adho Mukha Svanasana:

1. Begin on hands and knees. Spread your fingers wide, rooting evenly through palms, especially the mound beneath index finger and thumb.

2. Tuck your toes, lift your hips slowly toward the sky.

3. Lengthen your spine by pressing your hands firmly into the Earth, drawing your chest back toward your thighs.

4. Allow the knees to bend if the hamstrings are tight, straightening the legs is not the goal; lengthening the spine is.

5. Let your head and neck soften, gaze resting between shins or toward the navel.

6. Press heels gently toward Earth (they need not touch). Feel the whole back body awakening.

7. Breathe deeply here for 3–10 breaths. With each exhale, soften deeper into the posture’s humility.

A Note on Reverence

As with all asana, may we remember that this practice is not ours to reinvent or consume, it is a living inheritance from India’s spiritual traditions. To practice without cultural appropriation means to honor yoga not as commodity, but as sacred discipline, a union of body, breath, and spirit.

Adho Mukha Svanasana reminds us that we are not above the Earth, we bow to Her, we rest in Her, we rise again because of Her.

How does this posture feel in your body? Not just physically, but energetically, spiritually?