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HW 30DYC – Day 15: Standing balance
By improving your sense of balance on the physical plane, you also improve the balance in your other koshas and thus also in other aspects of your life. Good grounding ensures that you are more stable and sustainable can continue to grow in your life. Actually, physical balance starts with balancing our mind. If the mind is going in all directions, it is also difficult to maintain balance. Therefore we often use our gaze, drishti, where you focus your gaze and your mind on a place that is not moving. You stare at it rather than look at it. So you get totally focused on it and sucked into the point so you can perform your exercises more steadily.
I have chosen to highlight just mountain pose for this topic because it teaches you so well to stand on both feet, keep in touch with the ground, mother earth, and make sure you stay grounded throughout the day.
Stand on both feet with your feet together. If it is uncomfortable to put your feet all the way together because of your thighs or because your basic balance is not so good yet, you can put the feet hip-width apart to have more space and stability. If you want to open the pelvic floor a little more stand with your toes together and the heels slightly apart. This brings the sitting legs slightly apart. This variation is not suitable for everyone, so make sure you turn from your hip and not from your knee. If you find that this causes your knees to torsion, this variation where you turn your feet and hips a little inward is not yet suitable for you. When balancing in stance always try to take care of your knees and avoid torsion in the knee joint, this puts too much strain on the meniscus.
So you stand with your feet together, make sure you make contact with the 3 contact points in your foot, the foot area under your big toe, the foot area under your little toe, your heel. These form a triangle. The triangle is a powerful shape. You tighten your mula Bandha to make this even stronger and to tap into an upward energy: prana vayu (an energy field that goes up and inward)
Stretch your knees, but do not over-extend them.
Stretch your torso and pelvis. Lift your pelvis back slightly by actively tightening your abdominal muscles and bringing your tailbone down towards the earth.
Roll your shoulders back and let the arms rest along your body.
Tuck your chin in slightly and point the crown of your head toward the sky. Feel the apana vayu, the energy field going down and out. Feel that your body from foot to crown is the connection between mother earth and heaven.
Ground all the way into your feet, visualize the color red and terra coming up and filling your 1st and 2nd chakras. Let this feeling of grounding and upward energy continue to your solar plexus and heart chakra as well. Anchor yourself while remaining in connection with the high chakras (although they are now partially in the background). The prana vayu and apana vayu can find each other and come into balance at the height of your navel and the samana vayu can form so that you are in balance.
Take 5 conscious deep breaths the yogi way: to your chest, belly, hold for a moment and breathe out belly first then chest again.
Feel the peace and balance coming over you.
Start your standing balance series from here and keep visualizing the energy fields coming together in your body. Keep in mind that the grounding is not only going down but also coming up. 🙂<font face=”inherit”>From here you can come in easy tree pose bij lifting you arm 135 degrees up to the side and take your </font>case<font face=”inherit”> up. This way you connect more with the Source, while opening your hart. </font>
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2 Replies
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Wonderfully done Floor! This is such a simple pose, but you have really brought all the elements which make it the extremely powerful pose it is. Breath, focus on chakras, and alignment. Excellent!
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Thank you Sukhi 😊
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