Published May 5, 2026 03:27PM
In a world that moves so fast and demands so much, how do you find balance?
When you think about finding balance, you probably want to find yourself in a life that feels more in alignment and less chaotic. Maybe that looks like balance between working too much and quitting your job to focus on you, doing too much and doing too little, and caring for yourself and caring for others. But how do you find that?
Striking a middle ground between effort (sthira) and ease (sukha) is exactly what the author of the Yoga Sutras, Pantanjali, was referring to in his famous sutra, “Sthira Sukham Asanam” (2.46). He was referring to finding that balance in yoga postures, but the same principle applies to your life off the mat.
Instead of looking at balance as a single endpoint that you achieve, consider it more of a feeling that you create for yourself again and again by asking yourself, “What do I need?”
It can take some practice to find the middle ground. The following yoga for balance sequence helps you get a glimpse of what stability feels like, physically, mentally, and emotionally—and how you can regain your balance after you’ve lost it.
20-Minute Yoga Practice for Balance & Stability
This sequence is designed to help you work on your strength and stability while allowing you to choose which variations best support you. If you fall out of a balancing pose, try to notice your reaction. This is your chance to practice giving yourself encouragement and compassion on the mat, which carries over into life.
All you need is a yoga mat or steady surface and your precious self.
1. Seated Side Stretch
Sit cross-legged or find another comfortable position. Reach your arms overhead, interlace your fingers, and flip your palms to face toward the ceiling. As you exhale, lean toward the left. Inhale and return to center. Exhale and lean toward the right. Inhale and return to center. Release your hands to your sides and roll your wrists a few times in both directions.
2. Neck Stretch
Place your fingertips at your sides on the mat or blocks. Exhale and tilt your head toward the right, drawing your ear toward your right shoulder. Inhale and return to center. Exhale and tilt your head toward the left, drawing your ear toward your left shoulder. Repeat that a few times.
Inhale and lift your chin toward the ceiling. Exhale and lower your chin toward your chest. Inhale and return your head to neutral.
3. Seated Cat-Cow
Straighten your arms to the sides in a T shape. Inhale as you reach your chest forward, lift your gaze toward the ceiling, and reach your arms behind you in seated Cow Pose. Exhale as you draw your navel toward your spine, round your back, and reach your arms forward in seated Cat Pose. Repeat a few times.
4. Child’s Pose to Tabletop
Come to your hands and knees. Exhale as you lower your hips toward your heels and your chest toward the mat in Child’s Pose. Inhale as you press your hands into the mat and shift forward to your hands and knees. Exhale as you lower your hips toward your heels in Child’s Pose. Repeat a few more times, ending in Child’s Pose.
5. Toe Squat
From Child’s Pose, tuck your toes. Walk your hands toward your body, start to sit upright, and slowly shift more weight onto the balls of your feet until you feel a stretch. Keep your hands on the mat or lift your chest and rest your hands on your thighs in Toe Squat. Take a few breaths here.
Return to your hands and knees.
6. Chaturanga Variation
From your hands and knees, walk your knees a few inches farther behind you and tuck your toes. Draw your navel toward your spine. Exhale as you bend your elbows and lower your chest to the mat in a knees-down variation of Chaturanga.
7. Cobra Pose
Inhale as you straighten your legs behind you, press your hands into the mat, and lift your chest in Cobra. Exhale as you lower your chest to the mat.
8. Downward-Facing Dog
Press your hands into the mat and draw your hips toward your heels in Child’s Pose or tuck your toes and lift your hips in Downward-Facing Dog. Take a few breaths here. If you’re in Down Dog, lower your knees to the mat.
9. Bird Dog
From your hands and knees, inhale and straighten your right leg behind you. Press your back heel toward the wall behind you and draw your navel toward your spine. Keep both hands on the mat or lift your left hand and reach toward the wall in front of you. Take a few breaths here. Lower your left hand and right knee. Repeat on the opposite side.
Return to your hands and knees. Stay here or press into Downward Dog.
10. Standing Half Forward Bend
From your hands and knees or Downward Dog, walk to the top of the mat. Reach your chest forward, flatten your back, and place your fingertips on the mat, your shins, or blocks underneath your shoulders in Standing Half Forward Bend.
11. Standing Forward Bend
Exhale as you draw your chest toward your thighs and place your fingertips on the mat or blocks in Standing Forward Bend.
12. Chair Pose to Single-Leg Balance
Bend your knees, lift your chest, and sit your hips back in Chair Pose. Reach your arms overhead or straight ahead toward the front wall. Take a breath here.
Bring your hands to your hips. Shift your weight into your right foot and lift your left heel off the mat. Stay here or straighten your right leg as you lift your entire left foot off the mat. Take a breath here, then lower your left foot back to meet your right in Chair Pose. Repeat on the opposite side.
Return to Standing Forward Bend.
13. Plank
Bend your knees as much as you need to plant your hands on the mat and step one foot behind you, then the other, into Plank. Take a breath here. Lower your knees to the mat.
14. Side Plank Variation
From your hands and knees, straighten your right leg behind you and plant your toes on the mat. Turn your chest and hips toward the right side as you plant your right heel on the mat and take your right hand to your hip in Side Plank variation. Stay here or reach your right hand toward the ceiling. Take a few breaths.
Exhale as you lower your right hand to the mat and tuck your toes in Plank. Exhale as you lower your right knee to the mat and straighten your left leg behind you with your toes tucked. Repeat Side Plank variation on the left side.
Repeat Plank, Chaturanga variation, Cobra, Downward Dog, Standing Half Forward Bend, and Standing Forward Bend.
15. Warrior 3
From Standing Forward Bend, bend your right knee and slide your left foot straight behind you so your toes lightly touch the mat. Draw your hands to prayer position at your chest. Draw your navel toward your spine and imagine you’re squeezing your thighs in toward your midline. Stay here or lift your left toes off the mat and straighten your right leg in Warrior 3. Take a breath here.
Exhale as you bend your right knee, lower your hands to the mat or blocks, step your left foot back and follow it with your right foot as you come into Plank.
16. Side Plank
Roll onto the outer edge of your left foot. Plant the inner edge of your right foot on the mat in front of your left foot. Shift your weight into your left hand and bring your right hand to your hip or reach toward the ceiling in Side Plank. Stay here or lift your right foot and press your heel away from you. Take a breath, then exhale as you return to Plank.
Lower into Child’s Pose or press into Downward Dog. Walk your feet into Standing Forward Bend. Repeat Warrior 3 and Side Plank on the opposite side. Then come into Child’s Pose.
17. Low Lunge to Half Splits
From your hands and knees, draw your right knee toward your chest and inch your foot on the mat between your hands in Low Lunge. Take a few breaths here. Straighten your front leg, shift your hips back a little but keep them over your bent knee, and keep your hands on the mat or blocks on either side of your front leg in Half Splits. Stay here or tuck your back toes and straighten your back leg so you’re standing. (You might want to inch your back foot forward a few inches.) Press both feet into the mat and lift into Pyramid Pose. Take a few breaths here.
Return to your hands and knees. Step your left foot forward and repeat Low Lunge, Half Splits or Pyramid Pose on the left side.
20. Windshield Wipers
Sit with your knees bent in front of you, plant your feet on the mat slightly wider than hip-width apart, and press your hands against the mat a few inches behind your hips with your fingertips facing you. Draw your knees toward one side, then the other in Windshield Wipers. Repeat a few times.
21. Bound Angle Pose
Draw the soles of your feet together as close or far away from your hips as is comfortable. Rest your hands on your thighs or shins. Exhale as you reach your chest forward toward your feet, then round forward in Bound Angle Pose.
22. Alternate Nostril Breathing
Come into any comfortable seated position. This breathing technique is believed to help balance your energy. Close your right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale through your left nostril, take your thumb off your right nostril, and close your left nostril with your right ring finger, and exhale through your right nostril. Then reverse. Continue alternative nostril breathing for a few rounds.
Take a deep breath in through both nostrils, then out. Take a moment to notice how you feel and welcome any insights you might have about gaining more balance and harmony in your life.
