Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Benefits
It always puzzles me that people are so concerned with learning to
balance on their arms and hands in yoga classes, when most cannot
even stand on their own two feet particularly well.
So Tadasana is a great place to start working with our most
fundamental posture of all; master this single pose and every other
asana is suddenly truly open to you.
Common Mistakes
There is no right or wrong way to ‘do’ Tadasana or any posture
come to that, as long as your body doesn’t suffer from the
experience and you are connected mindfully to your practice.
Tadasana can be a very solid and firm pose like its mountain
namesake, or it can be soft and gentle rather more like a hill. It
is likely that we will want to have elements of both strength and
softness, rigidity and suppleness, like a mountain with a soft, snow
laden peak and differing faces.
Tips
n I always begin with the feet and the mind. After all the feet are
our point of contact with the ground – our foundation. The mind
controls the winds that buffet and swirl around the mountain. If
the mind is not calm and the feet are not grounded we have no
hope of establishing a stable and easeful posture as Patanjali
would have recommended.
n Explore the effects of creating and releasing tension in various
parts of your body. Experiment with tensing the lower leg
muscles, upper legs, thighs and knees, the buttocks, groin, pelvic
floor and abdominals. Explore various combinations of tension.
Do the same with the upper body.
n Ask yourself, does this create more stability? A greater sensation
of lightness? Does it feel more supportive to my spine? Do I fell
solid and supple or rigid and brittle?
n Only you can understand your Tadasana. And you can only
understand it by spending time with it. Alone.
Awareness
I love working with Tadasana with my eyes closed. That way I can really
feel the pose rather than thinking it. If you are comfortable working
with the eyes closed and safe to do so then try it this way. Trust me,
it will open up entirely new dimensions of the posture that you never
understood before.
So begin with the breath. Allow the breath to settle and find its own
stable pattern.
When you feel mentally calm, however long that takes, move your
attention around the body. Where are you holding tension today? Don’t
expect it to be the same as yesterday or two hours ago. Yoga is about
working with the person that you are now, not a memory of what you
think or thought you were.
Take your awareness to your feet. Are they parallel and facing
forwards or turned outwards (or more rarely inwards)? If they aren’t
aligned straight ahead then (for the majority of bodies) that twisting
will be carried up through the entire leg to the hip joint and pelvis. We
will be creating unbalanced areas of tightness as well as areas lacking
engagement. From this start point we can’t ever hope to grow upwards
with stability. So sort those feet out!
MAN ON THE MAT: WITH DAN PEPPIATT
FM
Spread your toes, lift them up. Notice the arches of your feet
becoming more pronounced as you pull the tendons that pass through
the soles tighter? Those arches are the key to the strength, spring and
shock absorbing properties of your feet. Collapse them at your peril!
Now place the toes back down whilst keeping them spread.
Engage through the points of contact with the floor, most notably the
balls of your feet and your heel (sometimes defined as having an inner
and outer edge). Don’t forget to mindfully press into the ball of the big
toe, we often tend to subconsciously roll onto the outside edge of the
foot. Not engaging through the inside, medial edge of the foot has far
reaching implications for everything from balance to core muscle and
pelvic stability.Find out more about Dan Peppiatt’s teacher training immersion and
workshops at yogalikewater.comPhoto: drishtiyogaphotography.com