Pigeon Pose

Pigeon Pose | Kapotasana

In the Yoga world pigeon is a popular pose to stretch your hips, lower back and target your glutes. I learnt very quickly when starting my yoga journey that this pose was going to change my life.

Every time my teacher guided me into pigeon, I would stretch my arms out in front of me and allow my heart to lower closer and closer with every exhale towards my mat.

It felt uncomfortable but I could still breathe so I knew I was ok, tight hips and lower back pain was real in Pigeon. Working full time at a hospital where I sat at a desk for 8 hours a day plus my 45 min commute there and my 45 min commute home it was never a surprise to me why Pigeon made me feel uncomfortable.

I would breathe through the discomfort with deep breaths because I knew i could stay longer if i let go of the thoughts “this hurts” and just focus on my breath.

When I focused more on my breath, more happened. The physical discomfort started to disappear and emotional discomfort would creep up.

I would loose my breath with the emotional discomfort, I would be so focused on holding in my tears and the quivering lips so people wouldn’t hear or judge me.

Then one day I was the only student in the room, being guided into pigeon. I took a deep breath and on my exhale i draw my left knee towards my left wrist finding my self creating that number 7 within my legs. I take a look over my left shoulder to see my toes aligned with my leg, making sure I am not sinking weight into my left or right side and with a strong pelvis I align my head over my heart and my heart over my hips, I walk my hands down my mat and sink my heart into the ground. I cry.

My teacher sits beside me, holds space. Assures me that this is normal, she gets curious and I open up about the grief I have been holding in. She teaches me that our hips store emotions, when we open our hips we release emotions and were forced to feel them.

I felt them that class and every class after. I began to heal.

Not long after, I invested not just financially but emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically and I spent 2 years diving deep into learning how to love myself.

10 years later,

Pigeon is the pose I love the most to guide my students into.