Ananda Balasana – Have you seen small babies? When we make them lie down on the bed, they mostly hold their toes using their fingers and start moving to and fro, as if they are blessed with all the happiness and enjoyment of life. They have no tension, no worries, they are just swinging, smiling and enjoying every moment on this earth. They don’t know what stress is, what anxiety is, what depression is, or anything bad about mental health.
Whatever they have is just pure bliss and great mental health. Keeping the beautiful benefits of this unintentional pose performed by almost every baby, the yoga discipline came up with Ananda Balasana. Ananda Balasana is one of the most blissful and happy postures in the yoga traditions. Ananda Balasana has been used for decades for attaining pure bliss and joy.
This not only offers peace and happiness to the human race, but it also helps in providing various physical, mental, and emotional health benefits to humans. In a life where we are struggling too much to spare some moment of joy for ourselves, this pose is a boon that offers humans the twofold benefits. It not only blesses you with some time of joy, but at the same time, it works on the root cause of various problems a person deals with due to stress, anxiety, and other modern time causes, and heals the body inside out.
This pose requires some preparatory methods before landing in the final pose. It should be done correctly to attain the real benefits of this beautiful pose. Being an easy yoga pose, it is also perfectly suited to beginners who want to feel and enjoy the benefits of yoga. In this blog, we will understand the Ananda Balasana, the process to perform this pose, and the incredible health benefits of this yoga posture.
What is Ananda Balasana?
Now, Anand here means happiness, Bal means child, and asana means yoga posture. So, coming to the meaning of this pose, it is the pose that mimics a child being happy. This pose holds its roots in the yogic tradition. Its simpler form is Balasana, which is also known as a normal, as a child pose. But in modern contemporary yoga, a more transformed form of yoga posture is mentioned in the name of Anand Balasana, or the happy child pose.
The name of this pose is derived from Sanskrit. If we talk about Indian history and Indian scriptures, the ancient Puranas, like the Bhagavad Purana, also mention this pose while narrating the playful stories of Lord Krishna when he used to sleep, stay in his cradle and reflect the divine beauty. This pose works not only as a hip opener, but also on our chakras that are the source of immense energy for the different parts of our body.
Ananda Balasana: Step-by-Step Process
Now, let’s understand how Ananda Balasana is performed!
To perform Ananda Balasana, one has to follow some preparatory steps, which are as follows:
1. Ananda Balasana should always be performed in the morning when your stomach is empty and ready to imbibe the benefits of this pose on your gut.
2. Even if you are not getting time in the morning and planning to perform this beautiful pose in any other part of the day, then you can also perform it at a time in which you are comfortable, but always make sure that your gut and stomach are empty, your bladder and bowels are totally cleared. Otherwise, this pose can make you feel uneasy.
3. Make sure that you perform this pose four to six hours after eating a food. In short, if you have eaten some food, always take a break of four to six hours before performing this pose.
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Step-by-step Ananda Balasana.
1. To perform this pose, you have to follow the following simple steps.
2. Roll out your favourite yoga mat.
3. Now you have to lie flat on your back.
4. Make sure that your spinal cord is straight and you are in a very relaxed posture.
5. As you inhale, you have to lift your legs. Yes, both the legs.
6. Now you have to gently bring both knees near your chest.
7. Now, as your knees are flexed properly, place
8. Your hand goes between both thighs.
9. Now you have to hold your big toe using your fingers.
10. Your arm must be pulled inside. Seven, now you have to open up your hips and make sure that your legs are widened.
11. Your knees are also coming closer to both the armpits.
12. This is a perfect stretch during Ananda Balasana.
13. Now, you have to check that your head is comfortably resting on the floor. Seven, now start tucking your chin inside your chest.
14. As you are tucking your chin, make sure that you are pressing your tailbone also towards the floor and pressing your heels up. Your arm should be pulled back at the same time.
15. As you pull your legs up slowly, make sure that you are holding the toes and the knees, as well as your ankles, straight and in one single line.
16. Make sure that your soles are facing towards the ceiling while flexing.
17. Now you have to press your neck and shoulders towards the floor.
18. Throughout this, your spine and back should be pressing on the floor.
19. Make some gentle movement. Push your feet upward. Afterwards, you can also pull them down to create some kind of resistance.
20. Your feet must be flexed, and your spine should be lengthened.
21. Now breathe in, inhale and exhale normally. You can hold this pose for some time.
22. Then release the asana when you are tired. Release the asana. If you are done, exhale gently, slowly release your limbs and bring yourself back to the floor.
23. Stay in the resting position.
24. Take a few breaths and feel the calmness within you. Then gently get up.
25. The time, the duration of performing this pose, totally depends on your comfort level and capacity.
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Health Benefits of Ananda Balasana
Talking about the benefits that Ananda Balasana offers to humans, some of the major advantages are as follows:
1. Ananda Balasana is one of the best yoga postures that offer the great stretch to the whole body, especially the spinal cord and limbs.
2. This pose helps in lengthening the spinal cord that rejuvenated and keeps it healthy.
3. People suffering from stiff back and muscles can perform Ananda Balasana under the guidance of an expert yoga teacher to release stress and rejuvenate the spine.
4. This pose also helps in lengthening the arms and legs.
5. This is a natural way to strengthen and build biceps.
6. This is a great hip opener. It gives a good massage to the pelvic region as well as the abdominal region, ensuring good pelvic and abdominal health.
7. This pose helps in opening up the chest muscles, ensuring good physical health.
8. If you are suffering from the tension in the lower back, which is causing back pain, which is causing the lower back pain, then this pose can be performed to release it.
9. It helps in relaxing the sacrum.
10. People suffering from a constant high heart rate can use Ananda Balasana as a holistic way to reduce the heart rate naturally.
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Other Benefits
1. For those dealing with mental stress, anxiety, depression, poor sleep quality and other health-related and mental health-related issues, Ananda Balasana is a routine to fill themselves with immense mental health benefits.
2. The pose also offers the benefits of performing squats. This pose is a multi; this pose offers several benefits to physical health, mental health, and emotional health.
3. Ananda Balasana also helps in balancing the chakras naturally.
Conclusion
Ananad Balasana is the most beautiful and endearing pose in modern yoga practices. It has its roots in ancient Indian texts and the Vedas. Its basic pose, Balasana, is also mentioned in the classical yoga texts and principles. This pose offers various benefits to humankind. It is physically beneficial and works on the lower back, spinal cord, limbs, and digestive organs. Ananda Balsana offer great benefits to these areas of physical health. Similarly, it also calms the mental stress and anxiety, ensuring great mental health benefits. This pose also makes one blissful and happy, which helps in calming down the emotional problems. Stay tuned to learn more interesting poses of yoga!
