Tadasana the easy pose??

Yes, mountain pose. Easy, don’t need to do anything, just stand and anyone can do it.
Really?
Preparing half boiled egg, boiling pasta in aldente and cooking porridge. They all sounds simple and easy but cooking them in perfect condition is extreamely difficult. To me, Tadasana is in this half boiled egg category.
If you are reading this blog, please try Tadasana – Stand on the firm ground with your legs together. Your arms are side of your body, palm facing the front or keep the palm facing toward your body with fingers are extended. Keep the spine neutral, roll the shoulder back once to expand the chest, and gaze straight ahead.
How is your pose? Is your spine really straight? Are your hips in “neutral” position? Are your shoulders on the same height? Is your weight in the middle of your body, not shifted to right or left? Are you sure your spine is tall and elongated? It is a yoga posture, so of course you shouldn’t relax your core muscle!
There are actually so many things to think about to perfect this pose. First of all, you need to find the weight balance. Personally, standing legs hips apart is easier to find the centre of the weight. What I do is shift my weight to right and left slowly by swinging your body. Then make this swing width smaller a litlte by little. Then you can find the centre point where you should place your weight. Then try the same method swinging the body fron and back. Eventually, you can find the centre point of four – right, left, front and back. This is where you need to place your weight when you do Tadasana.
Next if your spine. This is a grea chance to check your spine, maybe you can ask your friend to check your body. When you are in standing posture, by rolling the shoulder backward once gives you a chance to open your chest, lower your shoulders and enlongate your spine. In this position, ask your friend if your shoulders are on the same height. If not, ask them to adjust them. Then ask him/her to check your ribcage from the front of your body. Are both right and left rigcage facing to the front in the same angle or height? For example, my right rib cage is a little forward compare to the left (anticlockwise). You won’t see it just looking at me normally but if you examin well, you can see the difference in height. If you have this type of problem, make sure you adjust your body all the time because it will affect not only the alighnment of the body and yoga poses, and breathing as well.
Let’s check your hips. Don’t push your hips out like ducks, or tuck in too much like polar bear sitting on the ice. Spine should be in its natural curb and hips should follow this curb. If the core muscle is not used, duck and polar bear will appear within your body!
Then the most important thing – your mind. Like the name of this pose, it’s important to ground yourself. You are the big, green, beautiful mountain, rooting down through your feet as if you were connecting to the centre of the earth. When you imagin this image, connect these points of the body:
– Top of your head
– Between eyebrows
– Centre of the nose
– Centre of the chin
– Centre of the sternum
– Navel
– From the centre of the pelvis to the ground between the two feet
These points should be connected straight to the centre of the earth but at the same time these points are pulled toward the sky as well. If you are not grounded and your mind is busy, it’s very difficult to stand still, same as when you do headstand. When you are able to connect your entire body muscle and mind, I believe Tadasana will bring you to the deeper levels of the awareness of your body, mind and spirit.
Sanae Inada
200H YTTC Weekend
Jan 2015 to May 2015