Get in Your Flow: Yoga Poses to Connect With Your Water Element

Are you connected to your water element?
 
Do you feel passionate about life?
 
Are you in tune with your emotions? Are you comfortable expressing yourself?
 
Do you allow yourself to feel pleasure? Do you listen to your intuition?
 
If so, you’re benefiting from the beautiful ebb and flow of the water element!
 
 

Enter the Water Element

The water element is associated with the Second Chakra, which is housed in the pelvis and hip region.
 
Water is the element of emotion, creativity, passion, and pleasure. Like the rolling tides of the ocean, the water element is strong, yet soft and fluid. This element encourages us to tap into our emotional bodies, honor our intuition, and follow our passions.
 
You can connect with the water element through cooling breath work, Ujjayi breathing (which mimics the sound of the ocean), fluid movements, simply being by a body of water, or – of course – through yoga.
 

Water is the element of emotion, creativity, passion, and pleasure.

 
In terms of the physical body, the water element is located in the pelvis. Subconsciously we can clench our hips (much like our jaws) in moments of stress, anxiety, or overwhelm.
 
Doing so repeatedly creates a tendency for the hips to become tight and “trap” emotions, making it more difficult for yogis to connect to their passions and creativity if they don’t work toward openness in this area.
 
 

Practice These 4 Yoga Poses to Connect With the Water Element Within

Explore fluidity and the water element through your yoga practice and incorporate more of the following poses into your flows!
 

1. Marjaryasana/Bitilasana (Cat/Cow)

A great addition to your warm up, Cat and Cow Poses are simple and fluid. A wonderful flow that is grounded, prepares your spine for your practice, and connects you to your breath.
 

 

 
How to practice:

• Begin on hands and knees
• Stack your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees
• Inhale to sink your belly low, gaze forward and up, and arch your spine
• Exhale to round your spine and gaze toward your naval
• Continue this transition from Cat to Cow on your inhales and exhales for at least five rounds of breath

 
For more fun with this flow: Get lost in your movements and connect intuitively to your body. Make small adjustments that your body calls for – sway or circle your hips, close your eyes, and become connected to the water element.
 

 
 

2. Baddha Konasana (Bound Angle)

A great seated posture to include in the beginning or end of your practice, Bound Angle works your hips and inner thighs.
 

 
How to practice:

• Begin seated on your mat
• Bring the soles of your feet together
• Allow your knees to open as wide as is comfortable, and bring your heels closer or farther from your seat depending on the openness of your hips
• Interlace your hands around your feet
• Sit tall and lengthen through the crown of your head
• Stay for five to eight rounds of breath to work into your hips

 
For extra hip opening: Walk your fingertips forward in front of you and extend your arms, release your head and neck, and breath deeply as you fold forward over your legs.
 

3. Anjaneyasana (Crescent Moon Pose)

This pose is powerful yet grounded. Anjaneyasana opens the hips and quadriceps and allows for many arm variations and the ability to open your heart.
 

 
How to practice:

• Beginning in a Runner’s Lunge with your right foot forward
• Release your back knee to the floor and untuck your toes
• Stack your right knee over your front ankle
• Engage your core and lengthen your tailbone toward the floor
• Sink your hips toward the floor, stretching your back leg’s quadriceps and hip
• Place your hands on your right thigh or stretch your arms overhead
• Hold for three to four rounds of breath and then switch sides

 
For an extra challenge: Work into your heart space by interlacing your fingers behind your back and lift your heart forward and up for a gentle backbend.
 

4. Eka Pada Rajakapotasana Modified (Pigeon Pose)

Yogis will often say they dislike this posture because their hips are too tight! But Pigeon Pose is a perfect hip opener. By bowing forward, surrendering into Sleeping Pigeon, yogis can connect deeply to the water element and their emotional bodies, allowing some of the emotional waves to roll in and then release.
 

 
How to practice:

• Start in Downward Dog
• Draw your right knee toward your right wrist
• Slide your right shin as close to parallel to the front edge of your mat as is comfortable for your body
• Option to use a block under your hip(s) for more support
• Flex your front foot
• Untuck your back toes and keep your left leg reaching straight behind you
• Stay lifted on your palms with your spine erect or bow your torso forward over your front leg
• If you take the Sleeping Pigeon option, release your head and neck, resting them on your hands or a prop
• Breath deeply here, and then transition back to Downward Dog and repeat on the other side

 
For a gentler hip opener: Lay down on your back, bend one ankle over the opposite knee to create a figure-4 position. Reach your arms through the figure-4 shape, hold the back of the bottom leg, and gently draw it toward your chest.
 

 
 
 

Take This Water Element Activation Off the Mat to Feel Empowered!

Now that you’ve connected to your emotions and creativity, take this practice off the mat and trust your intuition!
 
Follow your heart and passions. Know that whatever comes your way, you can ride it like a wave with resilience. Patience will not lead you astray.
 
The fluidity in your breath and body can translate to a beautiful outlook on life. Enjoy the flow!
 
Craving more element power in your life? Practice some Earth Elements Yoga with YogiApproved.com Classes!

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