Tadasana

Tadasana: 

it seems fairly straightforward, a bit boring really, Tadasana, simply standing like an imaginary mountain at the end of my session, with all the more dramatic poses finished for the day. Yet as always there's more to even the easiest asanas than first revealed. The mountain pose requires my full commitment, unwavering in length of spine and ease of breath, and when properly expressed, Tadasana shows the actuality of Patanjali's description of the perfect yoga posture...

steadiness and ease. 

for years I approached this as my finishing pose, or a transitory stance between asanas that I believed had a greater worth. I missed the pose entirely, standing less like a mountain and showing myself more as a drifting leaf caught within a breeze. There was no commitment here. That's important for every asana, but perhaps more so for the ones that are at first so easy to overlook, passing quickly through in order to finish a session, or arrive at a more favored pose. 

and of course I missed the point completely. 

not just the benefits of Tadasana - 

but the entirety of yoga. 

it was only when I devoted myself to those boring poses, the transitory postures, that I finally began to understand yoga, and more so, caught a glimmer of truly seeing the wavering qualities of my mind. My thoughts were not steady, my posture swaying and breath hurried. Nothing at all like a mountain. Nor even a tree, as I could see that every standing pose requires a firm foundation, really, so much of my life was a stance calling for a certain steadiness. Tadasana takes my training off the mat and into the circumstances of everyday living, asking me to remain steady through high winds of whatever life offers. 

I'm now committed to this pose. 

grounding myself.

lengthening my spine.

breathing. 

standing with steadiness and ease...

discovering my yoga, 

~

Peace, Eric