Tree Pose… it’s more than just a yoga pose for me.
Yoga is one of my favorite athletic and meditative
activities. When you fully invest in the practice, it calms the mind, focuses
your energy, promotes healthy reflection, and provides a powerful workout of
strength, stability, and endurance. One of my favorite yoga principles is
listening to your body. In many ways, humans tend to simply use their body as a
vehicle to get stuff done, which can create total havoc on this precious vessel
we’ve been given. Unlike my Christian upbringing, yoga provides an opportunity
to connect mind, body, and soul. If we are intentional, we can incorporate this
interconnection into all areas of life. But, rolling out the mat is a great
place to start. I’m not one of those competitive yogis who’s always looking to
try a new pose or push my body to extremes (although I admittedly admire and ogle
at those who do…guilty grin). But, rather, I simply appreciate the sun
salutations and basic postures that challenge the mind and body to find a
stable position, activate muscles rarely used in regular activities, and focus
on the here and now. I enjoy a good warrior one, and two… reverse warrior, side
angle, and even plank…. But the posture that brings me home is Tree Pose. On
the surface, I feel most confident in this pose, because I’ve always had pretty
good balance. But, deep down I feel it connects to my childhood (ok, adulthood
too) desire to be a trained dancer. Growing up I never felt very attractive,
one of those things when you grow up subconsciously knowing you are different
than others around you. However, as a child I was always flexible. I could bend
my body in odd ways and even through my teens (ok even today) I can be found
sleeping in the oddest positions. As my body matured, I noticed that I
inherited a healthy blend of my father’s lean build and my wee bit of height
from my mother’s side (her twin brother is slim and quite tall). I also
noticed, that I could eat constantly and never grow beyond a 32 inch waist (I
know. I know. Rough life!). Whenever I look in the mirror one of the first
things that comes to mind is wondering what my life would look like if I had
pursued a life of dance.
As I’ve progressed through my late-20s and now mid-30s (how
the hell did that happen?!), standing in tree pose makes me feel A-LIVE!! For those
few brief moments, I feel like I’m that principal ballet dancer I aspired to be
as a kid, or perhaps that gymnast that wins the gold at the Olympics. But
mostly, I find myself focusing on staying balanced and grounded on one foot and
breathing through the slight adjustments my foot, leg, core, and overall body
need to make to stay in posture. These micro-adjustments fire up all sorts of
muscles, and while my body is busy adjusting, my breaths provide me moments to
reflect on the challenges of staying grounded and balanced in all of life. Of
course, occasionally, I’m not able to hold the posture as long as I would like,
and may even have trouble setting up the pose from the outset. Those moments
also remind me to laugh through the mishaps and give myself permission to try
again and again and again. After all, life is lived breath by breath and it all
balances out at the end.
#PuraVida… or perhaps #Namaste :)
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