January 2025

Melting Heart

Anahatasana

From our teaching team · Jen Villegas

Melting Heart posture (Anahatasana), often called Puppy Pose. A lovely heart-melting opener and one of Jen's personal favorites to practice.

Practice safely

These guides are for general education and are not medical advice or a substitute for in-person instruction. Yoga is physical, and every body is different: practice at your own risk, move within your own limits, and stop if something hurts. Talk with your physician before starting any new physical practice, especially if you are pregnant, injured, or managing a health condition. The safest place to learn any of these poses is in the room with a teacher who can see you, and our teachers adjust for every level in every class.

Step by step

  • From all fours, knees a little wider than hip-distance apart, lower down onto your elbows.
  • Keep hips in line with knees, extend arms out in front.
  • Place chin or forehead on the floor, allowing the body / chest to soften in the pose.
  • Alternatively: bend elbows, spread them to the sides, place forehead on hands.

Beginners' tips

  • Use a towel to pad the knees and a block to support the chest.

Benefits

  • Counteracts rounding of the spine.
  • Increases shoulder mobility.

From Yoga International

  • The name refers to the heart chakra, anahata. "Anahata" roughly translates to "unstruck" or "unhurt" — the place within you that is untouchable, the bell that can never be rung. The pose points a practitioner toward a safe, untouched place within.
  • Physically, puppy pose is a heart-opening posture: it reverses the thoracic curve of the spine. As the thoracic spine extends, the rib cage lifts and pushes into sympathetic nerve receptors.
  • Coming out of a heart-opener brings a down-regulation of the sympathetic nervous system — a short lull of calm, the "post-backbend bliss" — releasing some of the day-to-day anxiety we accumulate.

Go deeper

The best way to learn it is in the room.

Our teachers break down poses like this in every class, at every level. First class is $8.

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