Asana Focus:

Tree Pose: Vrksasana 

Tree Pose is a chance to experience the magic of yoga practice. And standing on one leg can become an inquiry into your own truth. Honoring your truth might mean lowering your foot to a place below the knee or even to the floor. It can mean bringing your lifted knee slightly forward in space to align your hips. Or it might mean keeping your hands at your heart center to grow your tree from your breath rather than through your arms. Through honest inquiry, you can discover your true alignment and find your balance, no matter where your foot or knee land!

Expert Tip: Try tree pose at the wall. Start by standing with your seat, your shoulders and back of your head pressed firmly into a wall.  Have your heals about half of your foot length away from the wall. Draw your right foot into the inseam of your left leg. Rotate your inner right thigh up and ground your outer thigh back toward the wall. As you do this, you will feel your pelvis being pulled to the right; allow this to happen at first. Keep pressing your thigh all the way to the wall or as far as your standing knee and ankle allow.  Notice how far your pelvis swings open. Now, engage your standing leg and bring your hips back to center until they face straight ahead. Bring your knee as far forward as needed. This action will show you your true capacity for hip opening. Feel which muscles you are engaging to maintain this position. Now try the other side, understanding that your hips will probably have slightly different degrees of openness.Gently engaging your abdomen can help remove the arch from your lower back.

As you visit this posture or pose in your practice, begin to bring awareness to the distribution of the weight of your body. Start to notice:

• As twitching and movement appears in your foot and ankle, can you:

  • first, be grateful for the powerful automatic corrections your body is making?

  • and second, draw focus away from the feet and ankles and instead notice what is happening in your hips and pelvis?

• How can you engage the outer hip and deep core muscles to mitigate the movement in your standing foot?