How to Do the Mula Bandha Pose in Yoga
- 1). Lie on your back with the knees bent, feet flat and hip's width distance apart. Place your hands lightly on your belly. Think of your tailbone as a kind of arrow and point it down towards your heels. Imagine that you are lying on the face of a large clock and your tailbone is now pointing at 12 noon.
- 2). Move your tailbone to the right, as if you were going clockwise. Pointing your tailbone at 3 o’clock would mean it is pointing to your right hip. Continue to move in this direction all the way around this imaginary clock. Once you reach 12 noon, reverse the direction and move your tailbone to the left, counterclockwise. After reaching 12 noon once more, rest. You have done two rounds of “pelvic clocks”, often done in physical therapy clinics to relieve low back pain.
- 3). Roll up to sit in Sukhasana, or Easy Pose, by coming into a comfortable, cross-legged seated position. Flex the feet so the outer edges of the feet dig into the floor, rather than having the outer ankles sag to the floor. Place your palms lightly on your knees.
- 4). Slowly move your chest to the right, then back, to the left and forward, as if you were inside an imaginary hula hoop. Continue to rotate your chest in this direction four more times. Then, reverse the direction the other way. You are creating a range of movement in the spine to release obvious stiffness along the length of the spine.
- 5). Return to neutral by sitting upright on your hip bones, lifting the chest and widening the collarbone. Do not puff the chest forward but instead draw the front ribs in. Draw the shoulder blades down the back.
- 6). Moving into the subtle action of Mula Bandha, imagining there is a hole at the bottom of the boney structure of your pelvis. There is a layer of muscle covering that opening called the pelvic floor. Lightly lift the pelvic floor as if you were stopping the flow of urine. It is that subtle action that lifts the muscles of the pelvic floor. Lightly maintain this lifting action for 5 to 8 breaths. Rest. Repeat 3 to 5 more times. Rest. Mula bandha is a way to prepare for sitting meditation. Over time, it is nearly automatic as one sits for meditation.
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