We once had a guest here at The Yoga Sanctuary named Tea Roman. Tea is a musician and yoga teacher who leads participants through an amazing sound journey that also includes a bit of yoga asana (posture). Just as he was beginning to guide us into some simple posture work, he proclaimed that we were about to learn the hardest pose of them all, one that takes most people nine months or so to learn. We got to our feet and stood tall and erect in the Mountain Pose. This was the pose he was referring to. And he was right! From the day we are born until the day we stand on our own two feet, it takes us roughly nine months to learn…

Let us dive into this “hardest pose of all” poses by starting at the beginning and looking at the name, tadasana…

Rich in symbolism, tadasana comes from the Sanskrit words tada (mountain) and asana (posture, or seat). Mountain Pose is the essence of stability and foundation, and as such, contains the building blocks for every other posture in yoga.

The posture itself “promotes the stillness, strength, relaxed power, and stability we associate with mountains,” says Alanna Kaivalya, author of Myths of the Asanas. She explains the inseparable relationship between mountains and rivers, both represented by the Indian god Himavat, who represents the Himalayas and is also considered the father of Ganga Devi, the goddess of the Ganges, India’s most sacred river.

“When we stand in tadasana, the head, being nearest to heaven, is where we receive the blessings that flow through the rest of our body like a river,” she says. The even stance of Mountain Pose—the lengthened spine and steady base—sets the tone for practice.

In India, there is a mountain called Mount Kailas with two lakes—one shaped like the sun and the other like a crescent moon, which represents hatha (ha = sun, tha = moon) yoga. Mount Kailas is considered the seventh chakra—sahasrara. The two lakes have been likened to the two streams of energy (ida and pingala nadis) that rise up one central channel (sushumna nadi) moving toward the highest level of consciousness. Mount Kailas is considered a sacred mountain.

When we stand in tadasana, we are equally grounded and arising. Our base is firm, yet we reach upward toward the heavens. Our spine is situated as it would be during meditation, ideal for the free flow of prana (life force) throughout the body. Take the time to connect to this energy in tadasana. Doing so can help you to maintain it throughout your practice.

Tips:

Do you feel a little off balance or unstable?

• Widen your stance!

Do you feel like you are holding tension in your shoulders, neck, hands, or jaw?

• Notice how hard you’re trying to work your legs. Sometimes this effort shifts into other parts of the body. Notice… then see if you can relax unnecessary effort. Breath easy and soften.

Is there discomfort in one of your hips, knees, or ankles?

• Try adjusting the alignment of your feet. Sometimes the structure of our bones means that having our feet parallel can affect things all the way up to your hips! Explore your foot placement and see if that changes anything for you.

Some things to work on:

To really create the strength and stability that tadasana teaches us to bring into other postures, you might try using props! Try holding a block between your thighs to engage the power of your legs. Or combine the use a block and a strap by wrapping the strap around your legs while holding the block. We’ll explore both techniques plus some others in our tadasana videos, so keep your eyes open for updates below!

And don’t forget:

Sometimes you’ll hear teachers say to bring your feet together so that they touch or to make your feet parallel. While that might work for some bodies, it doesn’t work for all bodies. So let yourself explore and maybe try different foot placements. But in the end, take the pose in a way that feels best for you and your body.

Videos:

Check back as we add practice videos exploring:

1. How to take tadasana with props
2. A simple practice to develop tadasana
3. Ways to move when in tadasana

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You can connect with Jennifer directly through her Instagram page!

By Jennifer French

Virasana, or the Hero’s Pose, is a commonly used sitting or meditation posture. Those that have difficulty taking a cross-legged position often find the pose to be more accessible and comfortable. Vira, the root word for virasana, translates to hero. You may wonder how a simple and humble kneeling position came to be known as such. It all stems from the story of the humble Hanuman.

In Myths of the Asanas, Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooji explore the stories behind many of our modern yoga posture names. They tell the story of how the half mortal, half divine child, Anjaneya, came to take the form of a monkey and the name Hanuman, who then grew into a strong warrior and great friend of King Ram.

Sent on a dangerous mission to rescue Ram’s captured wife, Sita, Hanuman dropped down to his knees in prayer creating a version of the shape we know today as the Hero’s Pose. Hanuman “knelt down to pray for the grace to do the impossible,” forgetting that “he was already capable of achieving his goal.” The story goes on… and Hanuman does, indeed, save the day along with Sita.

It is this humble and divine hero who forgets his divinity and moves forward with simple faith that we hope to embody when taking the virasana…

Try this:

1. Kneel on the floor with your knees close together and your heels slightly wider than your hips. Reach behind your knees and draw the calf muscles down and away from the back of your knees. See video below for more about this!
2. Lower your seat down between your feet. Let your sit bones meet the floor. See that your toes point directly behind you and your heels point straight up to the ceiling. Let your heels be flush to your hips.
3. Rest your hands on top of your thighs. Inhale and lengthen your spine up. Maintain the length in your spine and as you exhale feel your sit bones ground down into the earth.
4. Keep the natural curves of your spine and relax your shoulders. Stay for as many breaths as you feel comfortable.

Tips:

Is your seat nowhere near touching the ground?

• Many people, if not most, find that bringing their seat to the ground causes discomfort in the knees and/or thighs. If your feel any discomfort at all, raise your sit bones by bringing a block underneath you. Continue to add height until you find comfort in both the knees and thighs.

Do your knees just not bend that much?

• Place support (a blanket or bolster) behind your knees, between the thighs and the calves.

Feeling a lot of pressure on your shins or the tops of your feet?

• Place a blanket beneath your knees, shins, and feet to provide cushion for your lower legs.

Some things to work on:

If you find that virasana is a real challenge but would like to explore the possibility of it becoming a bit easier, consider adding some other postures into your practice such a Warrior 1 & 2 or Malasana. By slowly working on increasing the range of movement and stabilizing the knees and ankles, you may find that taking virasana begins to change for you. Be sure to keep an eye open as we add a few videos to support you in this exploration!

And don’t forget:

While you might hear some yoga teachers say that virasana is a great pose for your knees and ankles, lots and lots of times, it just isn’t! So be sure to listen to your body and if the posture doesn’t work for you, let it go and sit in a way that feels right for YOUR body. Recognizing what works for you is what makes a strong yoga practice, not the postures that your body can or cannot take.

Videos:

1. How to take virasana with props
2. A simple practice to develop virasana
3. Ways to move when in virsana and variations of reclined (supta) virasana
4. A simple review of how to take virasana: an oldie but goodie with Bonnie!

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You can connect with Jennifer directly through her Instagram page!

By Jennifer French

You might consider sukhasana one of those poses whose name is a misnomer…

While asana is  the second half of the posture’s name and is defined as pose or seat, sukha translates to easy, comfortable, or even sweet. However, it’s the sweetness that’s often missing from the pose for many of us. In fact, dukkha, a word that we can translate as suffering, is oftentimes much closer to our experience of the posture!

Let’s explore this pose in a little more depth.

Try this:

1. Sit up on two folded blankets or a bolster. Bend your knees and cross your legs at your shins. Gently draw your knees slightly closer towards each other as your feet move away from each other. Softly flex your feet and shift them away from the buttocks so that your feet are under your knees.
2. Begin to feel heaviness at the base of your pelvis, in your sit-bones. Root down through your sit bones and feel a sense of connection to the earth beneath you.
3. Bring your hands to the ground or to the blankets beside your hips. As you press your hands down, lift the sides of your waist and your spine upward. Draw your navel softly in and up toward the breastbone. Broaden your chest and feel your shoulder blades glide down your back.
4. Let your hands then come to rest on your knees. Gently close your eyes and begin to focus on the rhythm of your breath. Stay for a bit to simply feel the posture in your body. Notice where it feels a bit challenging, but also notice where it might feel good.

Tips:

Got strain in your hips or knees?

• Try bringing extra lift under you sit-bones or support your knees with blocks or blankets.

Got strain in your back?

• Try using a wall to support your spine!

Some things to work on:

To find ease in a particular yoga posture, it’s a great idea to incorporate other postures into our practice. Doing this can help bring some openness to what might feel a bit tight and strength to what might feel a bit weak. In truth, those things could be one in the same! For instance, your back might feel challenged in sukhasana so we might work on poses that bring both lengthening and strengthening to find more comfort in our simple crossed legged pose. You’ll find a video below that guides you through a simple practice that incorporates postures–other than sukhasana–that may, over time, help taking the cross-legged seat a bit easier.

In the end, sukhasana really is a lovely pose that can offer so much! With countless variations and ways of exploring the pose you can bring movement into all parts of your body. And don’t forget… the best way to learn how to sit more comfortably on the ground is to simply do it more often!

Videos:

1. How to take sukhasana with props
2. A simple practice to help develop ease in sukhasana over time
3. Variations on sukhasana 

Stay in the know with The Yoga Sanctuary by following us on Facebook!

You can connect with Jennifer directly through her Instagram page!