For Beginners: Boat Pose (Paripurna Navasana)

This posture teaches us important life skills—such as how to embrace difficulty—as it strengthens our abs.

By Claudia Cummins

When moving through my day with all-American speed, bouncing from one source of stress to another, I sometimes feel as if my inner self begins to curl into a fetal position, withdrawing from the world in self-protection. If the feeling persists, I begin to wonder if I've forgotten how to live big, how to move through life with a sense of substance and vitality.

When this happens, I know it's time to head straight to my mat, inviting yoga's steadiness and serenity to counter feelings of smallness within. The ancient blend of movement, meditation, and mindful breathing helps me stretch out inside, reinvigorating my life with a refreshing sense of possibility and joy. There seems to be something magical about the practice of yoga that nurtures in us the courage to head boldly in the direction of our dreams, to extend fully into our lives instead of settling into a shriveled-up version of ourselves.

Paripurna Navasana (Boat Pose) can teach us much about living big. This challenging posture helps develop determination, stamina, and boldness of spirit. It builds strong and steady muscles at the body's core. It also fosters a satisfying sense of vigor and warmth, and offers a healthy dose of vitality that can propel us through our day with steadiness and ease. When practiced with gusto, Paripurna Navasana can be one of the most empowering postures in yoga.

Flotation Devices
To begin, sit on the floor with your legs outstretched in Dandasana (Staff Pose). Take a few moments to consider how your pelvis is positioned on the earth beneath you. Is your tailbone tucked under, causing your weight to drift back onto your sacrum and your lower back to round? Or are you sitting firmly on your sitting bones, those two coin-size bony points at the very base of the pelvis? As much as possible, shift your weight forward to rest squarely on the sitting bones, with the lower back drawn inward to create a neutral position for the spine. At the same time, invite the heart to rise upward and the shoulders to soften, so your spine feels long, free, and spacious.

When you've found this light and uplifted feeling in your torso, bend your legs and slide your feet toward you until they rest on the ground a few feet in front of your hips. Notice what may have happened to your spine as a result. Have you fallen back onto your tailbone, lazily collapsing the lower back? Or are you able to maintain a long spine and a bold, uplifted heart? If necessary, shift the weight of your body forward again toward the sitting bones, reestablishing a firm and steady foundation for the exploration ahead.

While keeping your shoulders as relaxed as possible, reach your hands around the outside of the legs and grab the backs of the thighs. Use the legs for leverage to help pull your lower spine inward and upward toward the sky. As you do this, release the shoulder blades down the back to encourage a feeling of ease in your upper body.

To be clear about the feeling of this action, you might try rocking back onto the sacrum (at the base of the spine) and then forward onto the sitting bones a few times. Notice how as you rock back onto the sacrum, the lower spine collapses, the heart drops, and the head drifts forward. Then observe how as you rock forward onto the sitting bones, the lower back slips inward, the heart rises, and the head settles in line with the shoulders. Take note of the mood each of these actions evokes within you. Does one feel more uplifted and expansive than the other?

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