Tāḍāsana (Mountain pose): Stand with your feet together or hip width apart, the outside edges of your feet parallel. Spread your toes. Spread your weight evenly through the feet, front to back, and side to side. Lengthen your spine, drawing the tailbone downward and the crown of the head upward, slightly tucking the chin. Expand your chest, drawing your shoulders back and downward. Relax the arms by your sides. Soften your face; loosen your jaw; relax and steady your gaze; and allow a slight smile to form on the lips.
tāḍa = mountain, āsana = posture or seat
Tāḍāsana is one of those very simple yet intensely powerful yoga postures. It is the foundation for all the other postures – and, you could even say, for all of our daily physical activities. (Also, consider that all of the other yoga postures help us to improve our tāḍāsana – to be taller, straighter, more balanced, more open, more grounded, more energized.)
Tāḍāsana introduces us to several essential concepts:
1/ Each posture has an intention. It targets certain areas of the body. It stimulates (though stretch, compression, or torsion) certain lines of energy and/or centres of energy in the body. In tāḍāsana, we focus on lengthening the whole body upward from feet through the crown of the head, and downward from the crown through the feet. In other words, the line of energy we awaken is the central, vertical axis of the body (suṣumṇā nāḍī) – reaching upward and downward simultaneously. A second intention in tāḍāsana is to expand the chest, stimulating the heart centre (anāhata cakra).
2/ Every posture must have a stable foundation. This quality of stability, solidity, strength is called sthira in Sanskrit. Tāḍāsana epitomizes stability and teaches us how to find this stability in the more precarious postures.
- Spread your weight evenly through your base of support. The base of support may vary from one posture to another – e.g. feet, forearms, hands – but the principle is the same.
- Align your weigh-bearing joints. In tāḍāsana, the ears, shoulders, hips, and ankles form a straight, vertical line (viewed from the side).
- Know and support your spinal curves. There is a tendency to overarch the spine in the neck and lower back, and to over-round the spine in the mid back. In tāḍāsana, we tuck the chin slightly and draw the tailbone downward to lengthen and stabilize these bendier areas of the spine – the neck and lower back. And we draw the shoulders back and downward, sliding shoulder blades towards the spine, to create and support length in the stiffer mid back/thoracic spine.
3/ Every posture must also have the element of ease. This quality of comfort, softness, fluidity, freedom is called sukha. We can see this in tāḍāsana in the relaxed face and arms, and soft rather than locked knees. In fact, this sukha feeds the sthira. Too much solidity can become rigidity, and we all know that rigidity breaks down; it is not sustainable, therefore not stable. A bit of softness allows us to bend and bounce back, rather than break.
So let’s apply these ideas to two other postures. Let’s take a yin yoga posture, reclining crescent moon.
1/ The intention of this posture is to lengthen the side body – the line extending from foot, through outer hip, waist, side ribs, shoulder and hand – and to mobilize the spine in a side bend. 2/ Here, stability is experienced largely through the support of the mat beneath the entire length of the body. Also a downward pull of the tailbone and contraction in the lower belly helps to support the bendy lower back which can overarch with the arms overhead. 3/ Ease is found in the softening of face, neck and jaw; the relaxed opening of heart centre, chest and side ribs; and the overall release of the body into the support of the mat.
And how about a very yang (active/strong) pose like scorpion, or vṛścikāsana.
1/ The intention of this posture is to strengthen the shoulders and back, to mobilize and stabilize the spine in a backbend, and to develop balance. 2/ Stability is found in the vertical alignment of hips over shoulders over elbows, and in a strong, broad base of support through hands (fingers spread), forearms and elbows. Again, a gentle contraction in the lower belly, as if drawing the hip bones together, helps to support the lower back. Drawing the tailbone and the pubic bone towards each other also stabilizes the lower body. 3/ Ease is found in the softening and lengthening of the front body, the expansion of the chest, and the conscious relaxation of face and jaw.
Intention, stability and ease – Let’s explore these on the mat, and bring them off the mat into our daily life! I think this is what buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn had in mind when he penned the affirmation “I am solid, I am free…” More on this soon! In the meanwhile, practice your tāḍāsana throughout the day – while standing in line, brushing your teeth, waiting for the water to boil, etc. – and feel yourself as tall, grounded and majestic as a mountain!
(Calligraphy by Thich That Hanh)
Great Sharing Zofia! Thank-You for the diagrams as well! Loving the detailed foundation leading in to the Reclining Crescent Moon posture. (RCM) is a pose I am now hoping to help relax a tightened Right mid lumbar quadrant. I’m ery much looking forward to practicing this. Namaste, Scot
Namaste, Scot! I plan to write again on “RCM” soon – from a different angle!