Featured Poses

Vrksasana – Tree Pose

Find your roots and keep your balance as the winds begin to whirl around us.  Autumn is the beginning of the return to the Source.  Like a tree, we release the fruits of the past as compost into our soil.  We begin to draw our energetic sap into our core and become more introspective.  It’s a great time to reach for the higher limbs of yoga (#s 5, 6 & 7)—Pratyahara (Sense-withdrawal), Dharana (Concentration) and Dhyana (Meditation) in order to journey into ourselves.

In Tree Pose, we must connect with our standing leg like a deep root into the earth to keep our balance.  Our concentration must be constant or else we topple over in the wind produced from our own mind or the world around us.  When we stay in that concentrated state long enough, we enter a meditative calmness where every distraction disappears and we can drink the nectar from our core, from the Source.  Tree pose strengthens the hips, our concentration, and teaches us to find balance.

To Begin:

1)      Start standing, with your feet hip-width apart.  Hands on your hips.  Shift your weight over onto your right foot.  Look down and see that your second toe lies beneath your belly button.  Swing your left knee open to the side and place your left toes near the inner right ankle.  Re-level your hips (lift your left hip even with your right hip if you dropped it, to take pressure off the low back) and push your right foot deep into the earth, engaging the quads.  Find your drishti (focal point) in front of you.

2)      Raise your left foot and place the sole of the foot against the medial calf, lightly on the inner knee, or pull the ankle all the way up the leg placing the foot onto the inner thigh with the toes pointing down the leg.  Tuck your tail bone, and lift the pelvic floor, engaging Mula bandha.




3)      Hands come together in front of the heart into Anjali Mudra or, inhaling, raise your arms like branches overhead with the palms together or apart. Keeping the palms together will be more grounding on hectic days. Stay 5 – 10 breaths.






4)      Exhale to lower the hands back to the heart and the foot to the floor.  Repeat on the other side for the same amount of time.

5)      After completing both sides, counter pose in a forward fold, by bending the knees and rag-dolling over the legs to relax the low back.

Variations and Tips:

When we inhale, eventhough the breath is moving down through the body, the energy of the breath or prana (and vata) increases or moves up.  We literally get “light headed.”  Oppositely, when we exhale, eventhough the breath is moving up and out of the body, the energy or prana moves down towards the ground (This type of prana is actually known as Apana).  Therefore, to stay steady and grounded, breathe in slowwwly to keep your balance.  And when you exhale, enjoy the feeling of sinking into the earth.

Hold onto the kitchen sink, counter top, or back of the couch when you’re first learning to balance in this pose.

If you have any bulging discs you should avoid forward folding (step 5) with a rounded back to avoid compression of the disc.  You can drop your elbows onto the kitchen counter or lay your chest against the counter instead.  Or slide you hands down the front of your legs keeping your back totally flat and your eyes on your toes, chin relaxing towards the chest.

Advanced yogis might try bringing the foot up into the crease at the front of the hip into Half-Lotus (Ardha Padmasana), but only after stretching out the quads and the hips.  Listen to your knees if you try this.




Be careful not to hyperextend or stress your standing knee by staying in the pose too long.  You can micro-bend the standing knee the whole time if you tend to hyperextend the knees.

Practice safely and listen to your body.

Author, Lauren Kamala Beissinger, is a certified yoga teacher and licensed massage therapist (LMBT #7344).  She resides in Brevard, NC.  Catch her weekly classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Brevard Yoga.