tadasana - mountain pose
Tadasana, mountain pose, is what some people refer to as a ‘blueprint’ pose. It is the starting point of so many individual yoga poses as well as the start and the finish of many yoga flow sequences. It may look like an easy pose, just stand up, maybe relax and little and you’re done.
In fact, learning to stand in mountain pose so you feel completely comfortably balanced and relaxed can be a challenge. When you learn how your body feels in Tadasana, it is a wonderful and reassuring thing.
How do you get into Tadasana?
One of the most helpful things, I find, is to picture a typical mountain, wide and solid at the bottom and a snow topped peak with fluffy clouds and bright blue sky.
Let’s start with the base, the solid foundation; our feet. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, so your ankle bones lie about in line with the top of your thigh bone where it sits in its socket. Keep a tiny bend in your knees, maybe have a little bounce to make sure your legs are comfy. Now look down at your toes and lift them from the floor. See if you can spread your toes apart from each other as much as possible, reach the baby toe as far away from the big toe as you can. As you lift the toes, you may become a little more aware of the weight of your body in the soles of your feet. You might be aware of weight in your heels and behind your big toe. Now start to lower each toe individually back to the ground starting with the baby toe moving to the big toe. It might feel impossible to instruct your toes to move independently of each other, but over time you can retrain the brain.
Now lets move up the legs. Consciously think about lifting your knee caps, as you do this, you’ll notice that your thigh muscles start to chat to you as they start working a little harder. Now be aware of the natural curves of the spine. We are often told to hold our tummies in and flatten ourselves, but the architecture of the spine, with its gentle shape is brilliantly adapted to hold our weight. Slightly draw your belly button towards your lower back and consciously relax your feet into the floor. We have the strength and solid foundation through the soles of our feet and our legs, now as we move up the body we become aware of lightness. As you pay attention to the ribs, imagine they are lifting and expanding outwards, imagine your chest wants to lift up towards the sky. Your shoulders are relaxed, you might like to imagine someone is very gently sliding your shoulder blades down your back, your collar bones are lifted and you might like to imagine that they are sliding away from your neck (they’re not). Maybe roll your shoulders now and check that they are relaxed, your arms are heavy and hang from the shoulder joint. If it is comfortable, you can have your palms facing forward, otherwise, facing your body is fine. Notice your head and imagine that the crown of your head can float further away from your shoulders. ‘Tada’, you’ve done it, Tadasana.
Standing in Tadasana, we have the strength in our foundation and a lightness in our heads, grounded and composed, balanced and comfortable.