By Paige Faure

When a yoga teacher announces mid class that you’ll now be moving into the pose “wild thing”, it can sound a little intense. When we hear the word “WILD”, we imagine a tigress, or a late-night of partying, or kids running like banshees up and down the hallways of your home. And if you practice yoga regularly, you may feel that way when you achieve it for the first time or have a particularly robust flow that day. But for me, the benefits and enlightenment of the posture, called Camatkarasana in Sanskrit, are more subtle, more layered. Often called “flip dog” (dog being the downward facing kind), wild thing is challenging for beginners and seasoned yogis alike because it requires joint stability and mobility, trust and knowledge all at once. It uses the muscles all along the back side of your body, upper arm strength and hip flexibility, but the real gift of wild thing comes from having an open heart space - physically, because it stretches the literally space along your pectoral region, but oftentimes, emotionally as well. The posture can feel vulnerable because it literally turns the world upside down. If you will allow mat - and we have ALL completed quite the balancing act over these last two years, and maybe needed to see things from another point of view at one time or another. When practiced, this asana, despite its name, can prepare you for a deeper peace, I believe, because it allows you let go a bit, reach for places (and muscles) you may not use in your day to day life, and create space for imagination and compassion.

Whether you attempt wild thing once, spend years trying for it, or pop right up into it everyday with ease, take care and notice how you feel before or after - moving your body in new ways can feel intimidating, but there is a lesson in that too. Learning how to bring your mind to your body and allowing it to open up in new ways will surely bring greater energy to your days, as long as it is done with some focus, a lot of forgiveness, and grace for yourself as you grow into whatever your WILD is.

The change in perspective can be quite freeing - a reminder that everything in life does not have to go one way or exactly as we planned it to be good, beautiful and successful.

Over and over again, I feel the trust fall that wild thing is in my life off of the mat - and we have ALL completed quite the balancing act over these last two years, and maybe needed to see things from another point of view at one time or another. When practiced, this asana, despite its name, can prepare you for a deeper peace, I believe, because it allows you let go a bit, reach for places (and muscles) you may not use in your day to day life, and create space for imagination and compassion.