Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

your arms slightly farther apart and straighten your arms, pushing the floor away with palms flat
on the floor and slightly externally rotated, so that you feel as though you are a seal, supporting
yourself on your strong flippers. Extend the spine taller toward the ceiling, deepening the curve
of the lower back, and coming into a greater extension of the spine.
Modification: If you feel lower-back tenderness in the Sphinx or Seal, you can place a
folded or rolled blanket underneath your hips to create space in the lower back, which should
provide instant relief.
5. Start to connect to the breath and see where it lives inside your body. Breathe into your head,
neck, and shoulders and try to let go of any bracing up and away from the pose. Allow yourself to
drop down and give in to gravity. If you’ve suffered from lower-back pain in the past or are
currently dealing with issues there, you’ll naturally feel reticent about moving into this back
bend. Trust yourself to know that if it’s not okay right now, you’ll press back into the Child’s
Pose and honor what your body is telling you. For now, though, breathe and let yourself go into
what you are anticipating as the eye of the storm, and you’ll learn that what you were protecting
yourself from wasn’t as bad as you imagined it would be. As you exhale, let go.
6. To exit the pose, with eyes closed, gently push back into the Child’s Pose to stretch your lower
back, with your arms extended forward on the floor in front of you or draped softly as your sides
—your choice. Breathe deeply, relax, and relish the time you spend in your home position.
Spinal Twist
Meridian pairs: Spleen and stomach, kidney and urinary bladder
IN BALANCE: Contentment, courage
Shadow emotions: Anxiety, fear
The Spinal Twist can make us feel especially vulnerable, because the spine holds a lot of stagnant
prana from our sedentary habits. It’s natural to feel restricted or afraid when you first move more
deeply into a twist, wringing out those feelings. The antidote to this anxiety is to remind yourself that
you are fully supported by your body and the floor and trust that you can surrender to the sensations
that are coming up. In addition to the two meridian pairs highlighted above, the Spinal Twist also
targets the lung, heart, and intestine meridians by virtue of the upper-body opening it produces.
1. Lying on your back, draw your knees into your chest and give them a hug. Breathe deeply into the
entire length of your spine. Extend your arms out to the sides of the body in line with your
shoulders, pressing your palms into the floor. Using your abdominals to control the movement
and keeping your knees bent and stacked while you keep your upper body anchored to the floor,
slowly allow your legs to drop over to the right side of your body and bring them to rest against
the floor.
2. Rather than keeping your left arm extended directly out in line with your shoulder, raise the arm