Position of the Week: Vrksasana (Tree Pose)

Benefits: This pose strengthens your calves, thighs, ankles and spine.  It will stretch out your inner thighs, groin, chest and shoulders.  It helps improve your sense of balance, and also helps reduce flat feet and relieve sciatica.

So forget everything you've seen with regards to the depiction of school plays in movies and television.  There's always that dorky kid who gets stuck playing a tree, and stands there with his arms sticking out like branches and a blank stare on his face.  This kid's rule is simple: don't move- you're a tree.  To be the tree is the epitome of humiliation.  Well people, say hello to Tree Pose. The asana that kicks this tree playing stereotype in the assana.  Yes, trees are rooted to the ground and seem very still.  But lets not forget that they are indeed very much alive, and not so immobile.  They sway in the wind.  I find it lets you visualize yourself as something else, while continually remaining connected to your mind, breath and body.  While other poses allow you to do the same like, for example, feeling like a combatant in one of the Warrior Poses, Tree Pose brings you back to nature.  One of the reasons I love it so much.

Going into it for the first time was great.  My teacher said to bend our leg and bring it to the side of our other leg.  We could leave our bent foot on the ground, bring it under ther knee, or catch it and place it in the cushion of the thigh.  I decided to catch it and bring it to the thigh.  That's when my teacher looked at all of us and said "It's ok, no variation is better than the other.  These are just different options."  I made sure to really listen to what she said.  Why did I choose to place my foot there?  I didn't want to place my foot that way because it made me look better and more advanced.  If that was the case then I would have forced myself to place it lower just to show the blowhard in me who's boss.  I put it there because it felt right.  Sure, it made the pose feel slightly more challenging because my balance was being put to the test, but perhaps because of that extra stimulation it still felt right.  You could also choose where you would like to place your arms and hands.  You can place them in prayer position, to the sides, up over your head and reaching up to the sky, or over your head with your arms stretched out and hands clasped in temple (your index fingers pointing up).  Again, you are able to choose what feels right.  Personally, I think they all feel wonderful. 

Now lets go back to what I said before: trees are alive.  Another wonderful thing my teacher pointed out: it's ok if you don't feel 100% stable and move back and forth a little bit while trying to stay grounded.  Trees blow in the wind, too.  Amazing- Tree Pose lets you embrace the fact that there may be things you consider to be imperfections but in reality are not.  Swaying doesn't mean you are not doing the pose correctly.  You are simply being what a tree is: alive.  You are embodying the pose to it's fullest.  Then tomorrow, when you feel slightly more stable and have better balance than the day before, well, you aren't necessarily stronger in the pose.  That day, you are a tree on a windless morning.

Thank you, Tree Pose, for allowing us to sway, be still, and be happy.

Namaste,
Lady Lotus