🐍 Week 5: Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana): Lead from an Open Heart

Welcome to Week 5 of Yoga for Leadership™.

🌱 This is your calm and centered leadership series where I share one yoga pose each week for you to integrate into your leadership practice.

So far, we have practiced:

 🏔️ Mountain Pose (Tadasana) – grounding in what matters

 ⚔️ Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II) – leading with steady courage

 🌳 Tree Pose (Vrksasana) – finding balance with calm focus

🌿 Forward Fold (Uttanasana) - the power of letting go

Before moving on, I’m curious: 

Which pose speaks to you most in how you’re leading lately?  

Which do you want to do more of?

With week 5, we shift our energy slightly and move into:

🐍 Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana): Lead from an Open Heart

Up to now, we have been grounding, centering, and releasing.

Now, we begin to open. To rise. To allow new energy to move through us.

From lying face down, you press your palms into the ground, lift your chest, and open through your heart.

The movement is gentle, yet it expands everything, your lungs, your spine, your perspective.

When I practice it, I notice two things:

It takes strength to lift and courage to stay open.

And through it all, I breathe deeply.

That is what leadership often asks of us.

We have all been through quite a lot.

When things feel uncertain, or when we are just plain tired,

it’s easy to pull back and protect.

To stay small. Guarded. Careful.

How does that show up for you?

For me, it can look like:

• Taking on more work to prove my value

• Holding back ideas or opinions to avoid conflict or judgment

• Choosing the safe, familiar path instead of the new or uncertain one

• Avoiding hard conversations to keep the peace

• Powering through to exhaustion instead of asking for help

Somehow, it’s easier to stay small than to take up space.

That is why we need a practice like Cobra.

Cobra reminds us that renewal begins with opening again.

With lifting from strength and leading with courage.

🌱 Leadership Practice:

Notice where you tend to armor up.

Before your next meeting or conversation, take one steady breath and gently lift through your chest.

Remind yourself that openness and confidence can rise together.

💫 Invitation:

Where might you open a little more in your leadership this week, in heart, voice, or courage?