The body, mind and soul needs a lot of energy to run on a daily basis. We are but victims of circumstances at all times, especially when mishaps are concerned. The mishaps here we talk about are those that affect the body, the mind and the soul at large.
For example, the rat raced lives we lead, doesn’t allow us to take care of our body properly. This then leads to disharmony of the chakras within us. When the chakras aren’t aligned and in unison with one another, we then tend to be mentally unbalanced and physically ill.
It is thus important, not only to exercise the body, but the mind as well. For centuries, the art and science of yoga has been helping many across the globe. One doesn’t need to spend hours at the gym learning yoga and applying it in their daily lives. Half an hour at the most pr day, morning, noon or night is more than enough.
Experts also opine, yoga and it’s asanas can help remove sicknesses and maladies, sometimes without medical intervention or going under the knife too. Let us thus take a look at a very popular but effective asana, the padmasana yoga today!!
The Padmasana Yoga (Lotus Pose):
Also known as the Lotus pose, the Padmasana indeed is an act of loving your mind, body and soul sans any conditions. Read on and learn more, this is a pose that has helped millions, and we are sure it would help you as well.
More About The Padmasana Yoga:
In Sanskrit, “Padmam” means lotus. Hence padmasana is called the lotus pose. The pose is a very popular and classic yoga pose and is also famous outside the community as well. Although this pose is considered a basic meditation posture, performing a padmasana is very difficult, as it is a two-sided pose meaning that both the parts, in this case legs, are interchanges or crossed across. This takes good practice to attain.
How To Do Padmasana Yoga (Lotus Pose) – Steps And Its Benefits:
This guide will help you to know how to do padmasana yoga step by step and its benefits, modifications, precautions and tips for beginners along with variations pose images.
Padmasana Yoga Steps:
Padmasana is quite a difficult asana. Hence it is ideal to perform few preparatory asanas like Pigeon pose or Butterfly pose before performing this asana.
1. Begin by sitting in a cross-legged posture with right leg crossed over your left. Ensure that your hips are higher than your knees.
2. Taking the assistance of your hands, bring your right foot onto the left thigh such that the hell touches the hip joint.
3. You must now turn the sole of your foot up, lengthening through your ankle.
4. Once you are comfortable in this position, bring your left foot onto the right thigh with the heel touching the hip joint, sole turned up.
5. Gently press down your ankles to your thighs. Now extend from the base of the perineum, all the way up the length of the spine, with full energy in one go.
6. Now place your hands on the knees. And bring your fingers to jnana mudra, i.e, with the thumbs and index finger forming a circle and the rest of the fingers extended out.
7. Remain in this position for a period of time, taking deep breaths, as many as possible.
8. In case, you experience any difficulty or numbing sensation, go back to the original position immediately.
9. While practising, remember to alternate the lead leg every time you come to this pose.
Padmasana (Lotus Pose) Benefits:
Physical Benefits Of Padmasana (Yoga Lotus Pose):
1. Padmasana yoga is known to be one of the most advanced hip opening asanas and also one of the basic meditation postures, therefore it calms the brain.
2. The asana aids ankle joints in building strength and flexibility.
3. lotus pose helps to stimulate the spine, abdomen, pelvis and bladder.
4. The asana also helps to stretch the knees and ankles.
Therapeutic Benefits Of Padmasana (Yoga Lotus Pose):
1. People with sciatica can benefit from by doing this asana.
2. Women who experience menstrual discomfort can find relief by doing this asana.
3. Padmasana yoga is quoted as the “destroyer of all diseases” in traditional texts.
4. Pregnant woman can practice this asana till the very end to ease child-birth.
See More: Matsyasana Fish Pose
Modifications For Padmasana (Yoga Lotus Pose):
Before performing padmasana completely, one may start by doing an ardha padmasana, where ardha means half. To perform ardha padmasana, follow the steps below:
1. After you bring your lead leg to position, slip your lower leg under the lead leg. The foot must meet the outside of the opposite hip.
2. While doing this if the upper leg knee doesn’t touch the floor, use a thickly folded blanket underneath.
3. Perform this asana, with both legs alternating each time, during every single practice.
You could also use a foam block or a folded blanket under your seat to gain extra height in the hips.
Precautions For Padmasana (Yoga Lotus Pose):
1. This asana is not suited for people who experience pain or tightness in the knees, ankles or hip joints. They may however still perform this asana using modifications after consulting an expert.
2. It is not suited for people who have had a history of knee injury or ankle injury.
3. Padmasana is a very advanced pose and is highly recommended that it be done with the help of a trainer before doing it alone.
Tips For Starters:
Most of the time during warm up the outer ankle is often overstretched. In order to equalize the two ankles, you could try to push through the inner edge of your foot against the upper arm. Ensure that you maintain even stretch of inner and outer ankles, when you try to bring your foot across to the opposite groin.
See More: Mountain Pose Tadasana
Preparatory And Follow-up Poses:
Preparatory poses for padmasana are baddha konasana, virasana, janu sirsasana.
Follow up poses are adho mukha svanasana, supta padangusthasana.
Some More Detailing About Padmasana Yoga Posture:
When we have already mentioned a lot of the padmasana benefits let us now increase our knowledge a little more about this very common yoga posture. This is of course the most common posture when someone wants to do meditation. The meaning of this as already mentioned earlier on is of course the lotus posture. This is because while we are performing this posture our legs are in the position which looks like the base of a lotus. This one is also known as the ‘kamalasana’. The very definite reason for this name is that the lotus flower is also known as ‘kamal’ in Hindi. This stretches the body in a very calming way and also relaxes your mind so that you are ready to meditate.
For people who are working all the time, benefits of padmasana maybe a little difficult for them to receive all day long. It is normal to have bad posture if you are sitting in a single position for long hours. The sad part is that the padmasana yoga cannot be performed in work places whenever you want to. As a replacement what you can generally do is stretch your feet and then move it clock wise and anti- clockwise. More than that it is even better if you take breaks at short intervals and then take a walk around the floor to stretch your back and also relax the fixed position.
Following all the padmasana yoga steps also controls your breathing and calms down the stress level. It is also in general an overall workout for the body however you do not feel any strain. It is but wrong to believe that doing padmasana yoga can be the only remedy for all sorts of problems. It is best that you go through a thorough session of yoga where you can perform a number of steps one after the other for the best results. It is not possible to gain all benefits without putting some sort of strain on the body and so the padmasana can only do a part of it.
Yoga in general is the best way to solve your physical as well as mental issues which occur due to stress. Similarly padmasana benefits are some of the best among all and you should start practicing immediately.
See More: Bhujangasana Steps And Benefits
