February 2020 Pose of the Month: Tadasana/Mountain Pose

Tadasana (tada = mountain; asana = pose);

Mountain Pose; also known as Samasthiti or Equal Standing pose

We stand together. Strong as mountains. Unwavering and calm in our own power.

Blue Sky Yoga students from left to right: Heidi Tobe, Feleg Abraha, Cindy Campbell, Jim Etling, Nikki Dosanjh, and Blue Sky Yoga teacher Maury Browning

Here at Blue Sky Yoga we celebrate Share the Love in February. And we’re extending that love by showcasing a pose for us all to get better acquainted with each month. And with this idea, we would love for you all to share your pose with us on our social pages: Facebook and Instagram. Let’s see how we all show up for ourselves. And see how we all use the practice and the postures and our breath to explore the various states of our being. And lastly, let us also see that while we all show up together in the same pose, we also all show up in a multitude of beautiful and powerful bodies which means each of these poses will be unique to all of us. 

And why not have our inaugural Pose of the Month begin with the foundational pose for all other standing poses. Many people who may see this pose will think this is a non pose, there’s nothing to it, but oh, what this passerby doesn’t know! Just like the mountain in which this pose is named for, Tadasana asks us to stand in our magnificent power unwavering in our understanding of our highest and truest self. This pose is a powerful pose engaging all of our muscles and senses and allows us the opportunity to be present with ourselves standing in our own power and acknowledging the power we hold within our bodies, minds and spirits, to be here now, to be powerfully present, to be enough just as we are in this very moment.

Stand both tall & strong

Mountain is my power pose

I will NOT fall down

~Erin Vehige, Blue Sky Yoga Instructor

How To

1. Stand with your feet inner hip width distance apart, outside edges of the feet parallel to the outside edges of your mat.

2. Lift and spread through all 10 toes, then press down with your big toe mound, pinky toe mound and then inside and outside edges of the heels (pada bandha)

3. After you feel grounded in the feet, set your toes back down imagining you can bring each toe down individually from your pinky toe to your big toe.

4. We root to rise, so once you feel that connection to the earth, feel as though you are drawing energy from Mother Earth herself, up through your feet into your legs

5. Energetically press your feet as if to widen your mat, feel the energy come up through your strong legs. You are not actually moving your feet; this is an energetic action. Make sure your knees are not locking

6. Firm and lift through your pelvic floor (mula bandha) and up through the core to support your back.

7. Let your heart/chest lift slightly, and be sure to soften your shoulders at the same time.

8. Turn your palms forward and energize through your fingertips.

9. Draw your chin parallel to the floor and pull your head back to line up with the spine.

10. Draw up energy again from your feet through the crown of your head. Bring a slight smile to your face.

11. If it feels comfortable to you, close your eyes and just be here in this moment, standing in your power, knowing that you are perfect and powerful just as you are here and now.

Variations

• Palms together at the heart in Anjali mudra, chin slightly lowered to fingertips 

• Try Mountain Pose with your back at the wall

• In a chair ground through feet, press through sitting bones to engage the core, lift the heart and reach through the crown of the head

• Urdhva Hastasana/Upward Salute: arms overhead, slight backbend

Benefits

• Facilitates good alignment and posture, which strengthens and tones the core muscles

• Creates space within the body allowing internal organs to work more efficiently thus improving respiration, digestion and elimination

• Stabilizes the body and mind – promotes emotional balance and grounding

• Relaxes the central nervous system

• Improves confidence

Prep Poses

• Shoulder openers-shoulder rotation, shoulder flossing

• Savasana

• cat/cow

• Toe stretches

• Ankle circles

• Uttanasana/Standing Forward Fold

• Ardha Uttanasana/Half Standing Forward Fold

• Phalakasana/Plank Pose

Counter Poses 

• Uttanasana/Standing Forward Fold

• Ardha Uttanasana/Half Standing Forward Fold

• Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Facing Dog Pose

• Balasana/Child’s Pose

Contraindications & Cautions

• Low Blood Pressure (if pose held too long)

• Dizziness

• Migraines

Reflections on a Year of Yoga

by Heidi Tobe

Heidi and her dog Ivy on Amelia Island ,Florida, September 2019.

Heidi was the big winner of our 2019 January Challenge. Here she shares her story of growth and transformation on and off the mat.

Almost instantaneously after winning Blue Sky’s 2019 January Challenge (and free year of unlimited yoga), I found myself unintentionally setting goals in my head: perfect crow; learn to do a headstand; go to X number of classes; lose X number of pounds. The list goes on. In that moment, I caught myself making yoga a means to a number of ends of tangible, physical accomplishments. I took a pause and spent some time in reflection on what the purpose of yoga is in my life and what I wanted this amazing gift of yoga to be about. While goals of achieving certain poses are certainly not bad, I quickly realized this wasn’t the focus I really wanted for the year. I decided I did want: to make yoga a regular practice — attending at 2-4 times per week on average, choosing flexibility over rigidity — and to focus on the mental benefits of yoga, knowing that physical benefits would inherently follow. This kept my all too competitive side from kicking into gear and let me keep yoga as the thing that made me fall in love with it in the first place: a sacred space for myself with no expectation other than to show up exactly as I am.

So how have the last 12+ months of yoga been? Where have I grown? What have I learned?

Honestly, I’m not sure I know the answers to all of those things yet, but here are a few reflections from the past year:

The Practice

Yoga has become a regular part of my life. I’ve averaged 3 classes/week and it’s been a constant that I look forward to. It truly has become a part of my ‘self-care’ routine, both physically and mentally. For the most part, this means maintaining a standard practice regardless of what is happening in my life and around me. Sometimes it means taking an extra class, knowing it is what I need that day despite my brain telling me that I’ve already “done enough” that week. Other times, it means hitting my alarm clock and making the conscious decision to sleep an extra hour instead, knowing that’s what my body needs. Where formerly rigid patterns of thinking would have tried to shame me into going, yoga has taught me to truly check in with my mind and body to identify what I need that day.

The Growth

Spoiler alert: I haven’t perfected crow, and I’m nowhere near being able to get into headstand. I intentionally shy away from the more ‘power yoga’ type classes. While those nagging voices of pride try to tell me what I “should” be doing and where I “should” be at in my yoga practice, I find it much easier to squash those voices now and to let affirming, life-giving truth prevail than I did a year ago. While achieving more challenging poses is something I hope to work to at some point, it doesn’t have to be today or even this year. And while there may be a time I eagerly show up to Blue Sky’s faster paced classes, for now it’s not where I look to get in my daily workout, but where I come to get out of my mind and into my body, no expectations. 

My visible progress has been subtle — going an inch or two further in chaturanga before dropping my knees; using my core to protect the lower back; twisting just a little deeper in a pose. Perhaps most importantly, though, the greater progress has been being more deeply in tune with my limits. There are more moments both when I push myself a little further as well as moments when I choose to scale back regardless of what my mat mates are doing beside me. Just last night, I was finishing a second yoga class and chose to drop into child’s pose on a few occasions. A year ago shame would have caused me to either push through when it wasn’t what my body needed or to feel embarrassed at the choice I made to go to child’s pose; today that isn’t the case. I know the decisions I make on my mat now are decisions made of one who knows herself more fully. Yoga truly is so much more about the process than the product. While my pride would like to tell me otherwise, my lived experience recognizes the truth in that statement.

The Benefit

2019 started off challenging and carried hardships and heartaches throughout the year. I’m not sure whether it was yoga, regular cardio outside the studio, personal growth, or sheer luck, but these challenges didn’t tear me down in the way I imagine they would have in previous years. Don’t get me wrong, there were some excruciating, trying moments. But where I would have let these get the best of me in the past, I let myself feel the feelings these trials brought with them and continue living in the moment and moving forward. I do think yoga played an integral part in my response to various instances throughout 2019. In yoga, we are taught — and physically practice — that nothing is permanent. Discomfort and pain pass. While we may not be able to control events that happen to us, we can choose how to respond. We can breathe through the discomfort and come out the other end just a little bit stronger for the next time a challenge arises. A year ago, I could understand these words on an intellectual level. Today, I know them on a more intimate and experiential level (though there’s always so much more room for growth).

Thank you to Blue Sky, to Annie and Erin and all of the other teachers who create this sacred space. Thank you for the tangible — 175 classes with 15 different teachers — and even more so for the intangible. Thank you to my mat mates, some who have become dear friends. This year of yoga has been one of the greatest gifts I’ve been given. I’m excited for what 2020 has in store for each of us on and off the mat.