It’s celebrational Easter holy week. I’m also happy to announce (my and) this 100th blog post lands this week. Double holy cow! I thought it’d be fun to celebrate by listing 100 best yoga poses 🎉
But before mentioning the 100 yoga poses, I just wanted to wish happy birthday to anyone who already had a birthday celebration this year. I try to find an excuse to send a cake whenever I can 🎂
Even if it’s just an emoji. But sentiment and kidding aside, these days, it’s easy to be reminded with showering confetti “Happy Birthday!” emoji messages that bring us a ‘lil joy.
I think of the ultimate birthday as those who have reached the 100-year-old mark, who I think deserve their own special confetti emoji. That milestone is definitely worth commemorating. You’ve got to admire Centenarians who have endured and thrived through life’s marathon.
Besides seeing and participating in what their friends and families (young and old) are doing, some of the longest-living people have been naturally active and practicing yoga all their lives.
In some cultures, they get up and off the floor (or out of their sitting position) on a daily mat in one fell swoop as they did in younger years. And that’s just another reason for them to get back up and go out and appreciate the day.
Some Centenarians can even still remember facts and figures that younger decade folks can’t. And they can retell stories of their youth like a historical tale.
They breathe purpose daily (…and have breathed about 1.4 million more breaths than a 30-year-old).
And whatever age you’re at, you can too with your purposeful breath and yoga moves.
Here’s a list of 10 yoga articles to inspire your specific moves and journey:
Yoga is amazing because of the benefits for the mind-body connection: where the mind and body “talk” to each other. If we’re lucky and focused we pick up on the cues as a witness to our mind-bodies.
This is an area that traditional Western doctors aren’t necessarily trained on. It originated from Ayurveda, an eastern life science perspective, that’s made its way slowly to the Western world (and I started practicing in 2008 when I became aware).
Over the past decade, we’ve learned that the prevention of chronic diseases and inflammation in the body is connected to better mental health and less stress we carry.
And we can often tell by our anxious, irritated, or lethargic moods.
Sometimes it’s hard to do yoga until we get in a balanced mood, even though we know if we did yoga, we’d get there sooner. We can get in our way.
So, in case you need to overcome that or need a dose of moving or getting going inspiration, I’ve listed 100 best yoga poses that are timeless reminders, challenging, and fun (I think so anyway!).
I included some quick encouraging words for each pose that come to mind. They include thoughts of when to do the pose, reminders, or intentions that could be useful for you as they are for me. Some poses are better done when you have more energy.
And it helps if have a known purpose for doing the pose, to help be motivated. We can all use a good metaphor reminder in our daily lives.
So here we go…
Standing best yoga poses:
1. Sun salutations – reminder: life is constantly changing, and you keep moving. This is a good series of poses to start the day with, like just before you have your first glass of water for the day
2. Warrior I – reminder: feel empowered to take on the day
3. Warrior II – reminder: take up more space
4. Warrior III – reminder: focus on moving forward
5. Sun Warrior – reminder: don’t forget to look up and stay open
6. Dancer pose – reminder: you’ve got this day with your calm and grace, and letting go of the past. Today is a new day 🌱
7. Tree pose – reminder: you’re resilient and unshaken even in uncertain times
8. Mountain pose – intention: peace and reaching higher
9. Heart center hand – reminder: focus more on what’s in your heart and get out of your head if you’ve feeling stuck
10. Chair – good for when you want to feel grounded
11. Triangle looking up – good for seeing different perspectives
12. Lunge – reminder: stay productive
13. Humble Warrior – reminder: lessen ego and pride
14. 5-Pointed Star – do when you want to feel balanced
15. Eagle – good for when you feel on top of the world
16. Tree with hands straight in the air – reminder: you’re a unique tree
17. Tree with hands at heart center – feel centered and connected
18. Tree with hands in prayer pose behind your back – intention: feel more spiritual
19. Half-moon – do this pose when you’re feeling daring (tip: you can do this against the wall so you have back support, and you can use a yoga block)
20. Extended leg stretch – intention: feel energetic
21. Bird of Paradise – intention: be more mindful for the best outcome
22. Forward bend – intention: feel earthly
23. Standing half-bend – reminder: pause, but keep going because you’re almost there
24. Crescent lunge – reminder: be flexible
25. Pyramid Pose – do when you need more structure (feeling scatter minded, i.e. Vata mind)
Seated poses:
26. Boat – do when you want to feel less grounded
27. Pigeon – intention: feel less stress stretching out common areas of tension (leg, back, shoulders)
28. Seated spinal twist – reminder: the past is behind you
29. Seated forward bend stretch – reminder: keep challenging yourself and you may just surprise yourself with how far you can go
30. Seated side angle – reminder: try a different way
31. Lotus – intention: peace, and serenity
32. Baby Cradle – reminder: you’re in control of your body
33. Cow Face – reminder: it’s possible even when it’s hidden
34. Staff – reminder: sit up tall and be disciplined
35. Thunderbolt – do when you have problems, and you can reverse engineer to come up with solutions
36. Bound angle – reminder: stay calm
37. Seated knee hug – reminder: you are loved
38. Staff – do when you want to straighten your back and remind yourself that your back is an important part for your body’s support. (reminder: build strong abs)
Side best yoga poses:
39. Side angle – do when you need a break or stretch
40. Extended side angle – intention: stretch your mind
41. Side crow – do when you feel adventurous; one side is probably easier than the other and that’s your strength
42. Side plank – do when you feel strong
43. Falling Star – tip: like half-moon is great to do against a wall when you’re first starting out so you can lean further. Intention: feel free and creative
Front face down best yoga poses:
44. Cobra – reminder: you’re making progress
45. Sphinx – reminder: you can do anything you want
46. Upward Dog – reminder: you’re almost there!
47. Turtle – reminder: stay steady on the course
48. Bow – reminder: your hands, head, and feet are all closely connected
Lay down poses (starting with back flat on the mat):
49. Bridge – tip: use a block on the small of your back and feel grounded
50. Fish – reminder: relax and let go of heavy problems
51. Lay down spinal twist to one side – when you do this on each side, you see a different part of the room or space you’re in and is a good reminder that you have different options from different perspectives
52. Corpse – intention: be stress-free
53. Knees to chest (knee hug) – reminder: of self-love
54. Half locust with one leg slightly lifted: reminder -it can feel strange but still be helpful
55. Through the hole stretch – do when you feel tight like from driving or sitting, or when you feel uptight
56. Spider laying down – intention: holding onto your purpose but letting go of how you’ll get there
On all 4’s:
57. Inverted plane – reminder: great for bringing your shoulders back in mindfulness
58. Downward dog – intention: feel the day in earthly roots
59. Downward dog with one leg lifted – intention: enjoy the day by doing something new
60. Cat – do when you’re feeling fearless
61. Cow – good for feeling balanced
62. Balanced cat reaching out one arm and opposite leg
Back challenge: you can arch backward relying on all 4s
63. Backward Bend – do when you’re feeling energetic and youthful
64. Wheel – and you go higher to see and feel new possibilities
Front challenge: you may never do a full handstand, but you can get both feet off the ground
65. Crow – intention: strength (you’re stronger than you think)
66. Crane – and you can stretch higher
67. Peacock – reminder: you can get over the limitations you have
68. Firefly – reminder: you can do something different to light up the world. You may feel like a kid again doing this one (one of my fave poses and I have happy memories of catching fireflies )
Inversion best yoga poses:
69. Shoulder stand – do when you’re feeling moderately energized
70. Half shoulder stand – do when you want to feel energized
71. Plow – reminder: encouragement that you can take two steps back and come out ahead
72. Legs up the wall – intention: feel supported by the environment around you
Resting best yoga poses:
73. Child’s Pose – reminder: you don’t have to be doing something every minute of the day. It’s not how busy you are (something I had to unlearn)
74. Hare – intention: purposefully resting
Other inspirational best yoga poses:
75. Inclined plane – when you’re feeling like you want to get off the ground or you’re excited to start a new project
76. Plank – intention: building daily strength for any trials or difficulties you’re going through
77. Camel – reminder: let go
78. Dolphin – reminder: we’re born with natural abilities
79. Splits – intention: flexibly grow daily and watch progress
80. Happy Baby – do when you want to feel safe and carefree
81. Swan – reminder: have daily grace for those areas you can’t change
82. Hero – reminder: we can all be a hero in our ways in our lives serving and doing what we do
83. Neck rolls – intention: calming and releasing mind tension
84. Neck side to side – intention: take a moment to relax
85. Shoulder shrug – intention: be less stressed (letting the weight fall off your shoulders)
86. Frog – intention: feel youthful and free to spread out
87. Garland – reminder: take a break; good for when you’re feeling unsure or in between energetic and tired
88. Locust – reminder: try something different or take on a new project
89. Wild Thing – intention: let go of worries and enjoy more
90. Goddess – intention: feel ready for the world
91. Swan dive – intention: go with the flow
92. Cactus arms – reminder: take time off
93. Airplane – intention: feel free and in control at the same time
94. Spider with feet and hands on floor – reminder: you’re a beautifully unique creature
And then these sounds and breathing pair well with yoga poses and intentions:
95. Om – making the sound clears nasal passages along with mind and body. Try a variation by using your mouth to create an ah-oh-mmm sound sequence. Intention: peace and living stress-free
In yoga, breathwork is super important and great for calming. If you get heart palpitations from anxiety, these are good breath exercises to refer to and do.
For all of us, staying mindful of breath gets us in a good reminder habit to be healthy-minded. And when you get a good breath of air you can send that energy through your mind and body, to help improve both mental and physical health.
Your nose acts as a natural filtration system. If you regularly breathe through your mouth when you sleep or if you have nasal congestion and obstructed nasal passages, you may want to look for solutions to help you breathe out of your nose regularly.
And these are the special breath exercises you can do with yoga:
96. Sounding breath – this includes long and slow breaths while laying down, so is good to do when you’re getting in and out of bed. Reminder: you’re alive and able to take purposeful breaths
97. Breath of fire – while sitting, exhale out short and quick breaths from your nose (like a fire-breathing dragon that doesn’t exist) until all your air from your diaphragm feels expelled. And then fill back up gradually like a balloon. Daily reminder: you’re a miracle with automatic breaths. You can control your breathing using your respiratory muscle, your diaphragm, that sits just below your two life-giving organs: your heart and lungs
98. Bellows breath – do this one when you’re in standing mountain pose with hands at heart center (optional). Full inhale/exhale from the mouth. This is a good one to do in the morning when you’re first waking up
99. Sufi Mother’s Breath – this is a simpler version than the Pranayama 4-7-8 version. Exhale through your nose, then inhale through your nose for a count of 7, and then exhale again for a count of 7. This is great and simple to do on a walk where you’re staying present and observing your surroundings
100. Alternate Nostril Breath – take one hand and rest a middle finger on the forehead, thumb from the same hand rests on the closest nostril temporarily closing the airway, light ring, and baby finger on the opposite nostril. Then, inhaling through the open nostril. Intention: notice details about how each side feels as the air circulates more intently to one side of the body from your head to your feet. Reminder: how the air affects our body at and in this moment and how we affect others and the community around us with our breath
So there you go… those are my best yoga intentions and recommendations.
And one last thing that I wanted to mention…
Each week I bake and participate in an inspiring home baking challenge with a community of enthusiastic bakers.
And some could probably go on The Great British Baking Show. As for me, I won’t be applying to be a contestant anytime soon, even though I’m pretty sure I’m one of their biggest fans in my area. 😊
But since watching the show, I’ve learned a thing or two. Like this last season with German Week…
And so, this week’s challenge is Hot Cross Buns, an egg-cellent choice for Easter. 🐇
I’ve never made the buns before, but I did make cinnamon buns for the first time this year. No matter how these hot buns turn out I’ll show you a photo in an upcoming blog post.
…And since I’m putting myself out there, maybe that’ll encourage you to stretch your mind-body and challenge yourself to a new yoga pose or two if baking isn’t your thing.
And if you need a ‘lil more gentle nudge, just send me a note (on the blog home page under contact) letting me know what muscle pain or soreness or intentions you want to work on, and I’ll send back 5 yoga poses that would be good for you this season to bring back some fun.
Happy Easter! 🐣