by Inez Baranay
9. Tadasana: Two
Stand on your two feet. Lift the heels and stretch them backwards as you lower them onto the floor. Lift the balls of the feet, the toes, and stretch them forward. The toes are soft, not gripping the floor. The weight is over the balls of the feet not the toes. Imagine your feet bisected lengthways and crossways: your weight is over that central point. So the feet broaden as they provide the firm foundation. Now you have come to know the structure of the feet, take that knowledge to this pose.
The soles are firmly rooted into the ground, the floor, as the base of a mountain is rooted deep into the earth. The weight is even over the big toe mounds, the outer edge of the foot, the back of the heel. You grow long and tall like a mountain reaching up into the sky. From that firm base ascend, grow tall, stretch upwards.
Lift the inner ankles. The kneecaps lift into the quadriceps, the spine ascends to the crown of the head. Your shoulders are broad. The hands are drawn down into the ground as the crown of the head is drawn upward. Compress the hips, narrow the waist, broaden the shoulders.
Now what has happened to the balance of your weight?
Compress the calves as you lift the ankles, lift the patellas, lift the quadriceps, and keep the ascending action to the crown of your head. Take the navel inwards and upwards. Soften the diaphragm; there is no hardness there. Sacrum moving forward, sit bones drawn up in the body. The spine ascends, sacrum and crown in line. Do you have hardness in the jaw, the throat, the mouth? Soften; keep the face passive. The face is always in Savasana. Keep checking, refining, adjusting, the attention focused on the pose.