Tadasana (mountain pose) exposed

When I first started practicing yoga, I never understood why tadasana or mountain pose was considered a yoga posture. You are just standing and not really doing anything - in fact, I used tadasana as my "break" from the more challenging asanas. Whenever the yoga instructor would ask us to stand in tadasana, I would grab my water bottle and take a quick swig before transitioning into the next posture. But little did I know how powerful such a pose was.

Tada in Sanskrit means "mountain". In this pose, you are standing still and the weight is distributed evenly on the feet. The arms are at your sides and the palms are facing into your body or they are facing frontwards (the same direction as your feet), which I find more energetic. The back of your neck and the spine are erect and straight. The mountain pose when done correctly improves posture, relaxes the body and mind, can help relieve back pain, and strengthens thighs.

But once you are standing upright doesn't mean that you're in tadasana, according to Swami Sivananda Radha, the aspirant must define "mountain" and "standing still":

"The first thought is "I am standing, here, still." Only after this acknowledgement can the idea of mountain occur, and you can find out "what mountain means to me." Take stock of what is happening physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.

For some people positive associations may occur when taking stock of what is occurring within, however, it is not uncommon to feel fear or have an uncomfortable feeling such as feeling alone or being lost in the mountains. According to Swami Sivananda Radha, if disconcerting thoughts and feelings arise, it is because they have been "suppressed from awareness". This type of reflections is a good preparation for meditation.

When I am in tadasana, words such as power, strength, confidence, balance, stillness, calm, peace, immovable and indestructible all come to the surface. And as I visualize myself as a mountain, a surge of powerful energy flows through me - from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. And as this energy runs the course of my body and out through the floor and above my head, my body feels like it is lengthening and strengthening, and becoming still simultaneously. At first it is overwhelming because the power of the energetic force catches me off guard - I teeter off balance initially as I rock back and forth, from my heels to my toes. But eventually I manage to understand and become in harmony with the powerful nature of the energy running through my body. At this point I become one with it. I become still like a mountain. I am in tadasana.