Matsyasana, the Fish Posture.
Matsyasana (Fish) - This posture is a backbend dedicated to Matsya, the Fish Incarnation of Vishnu, who carried Manu and his family and seven sages to safety from a great flood, long ago. It is a story that opens in so many beautiful ways in the body. To talk about the Fish posture is talk about opening the heart, opening the lungs, expanding the breath from a wide pelvic base, totally exposed, totally free.
Matsyasana can be approached with more than one position of the legs. They can be straight, crossed or in Padmasana. Lying flat on the back, Fish expands by pressing into the elbows, lifting the heart towards the sky, and then gently resting the crown of the head on the floor. Stay here and enjoy the benefits of wide open space in the lungs, the heart and mind.
Move the elbows down as you lift the heart in Matsyasana.
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Uttana Padasana – Extended Leg Posture. While you’re expanding the torso in your Fish, if it’s accessible, the legs and arms might open to the sky.
Reach out from the heart, open the lungs and stretch the arms and legs in Uttana Padasana.
Try for 45 degrees. Point the toes. Stay there or lift the arms, if it’s okay with the neck. Or place the hands under the buttocks and lift only the legs. Try leaving the legs on the floor and raising only the arms. There are so many ways to add more space in the body.
B.K.S. Iyengar writes that the thyroid can benefit in these two postures by stretching the neck. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois adds that Matsyasasna and Uttana Padasana also purify the esophagus, anus, liver and spleen, as well as furnishing the waist and neck with increasing strength.
It’s time to breathe, transform and experience saving grace through the breath in these heart opening healers that can be held as divine.
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Photos: Chattanooga TN instructor Lori Bilbrey explores space in Matsyasana and Uttana Padasana before teaching a morning class at North Shore Yoga.
Sources
- Iyengar, B.K.S. Light on Yoga. New York: Schocken, 1977. 138-140.
- Jois, Sri K. Pattabhi. Yoga Mala. New York: North Point Press, 1999. 114.
- Swenson, David. Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual. Austin: Ashtanga Yoga Productions, 1999. 222-225.
