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Ground yourself.
Photography by Lewis Metts
In Tree Pose, you will find balance, confidence, concentration, and stability. Our Root Chakra lies at the base of the spine and is our connection to the earth. In this area, and through our legs and feet, lie our stability, safety, and grounding.
In our Root Chakra, we also hold fear. When we feel unstable in life, our Root Chakra gets out of balance and our connection to the earth shifts. We literally become displaced within ourselves. Tree Pose is a wonderful way to return to our roots and re-stabilize. While in Tree Pose we allow our roots to run deep and the mind to be strong like a sturdy oak. Our legs become our stable roots, our torso a solid trunk, and our head and arms our expanding branches growing and reaching, blossoming and stretching, connecting and growing – releasing our fears.
To do Tree Pose, begin in Mountain. Stand with feet together and arms at your sides with thumbs pointing forward. Soften the face and knees, pressing the feet firmly into the floor. When you are grounded in Mountain, shift your weight to your left foot. Slowly lift your right foot from the ground, bend the right knee, and place the sole of the right foot on the inner left thigh where it is comfortable for you. Keep your right foot pressed into your inner left thigh and bring your hands to Prayer or Namaste` position at the center of the chest. Open the hips; contract the abdominals. Then, repeat with the left foot.
Tree Pose is a very active body pose. If you put your entire body in alignment, you will be able to balance effortlessly. You will be centered within yourself while centered within the pose. This balance can be carried forward in life. At any moment in our lives, we can have the stability to trust in ourselves and our surroundings that we have while in Tree Pose. It only takes centering and settling in our own bodies and connecting ourselves to the world. When we are centered within – we are centered with all.
A tree is connected to everything around it like we are connected to everything around us. We are shifting and connecting, moving toward a transformation of self that will lead to a transformation of all. We are open to all there is, reaching out with all we are – like the branches of a great tree. As our connection grows, each branch grows nurturing new branches from each bow. The tree that is Life expands and evolves in never-ending possibility. Our connection spreads; our branches flourish. The branch that is me touches the branch that is you and your branch touches another and another until our tree is thick and full – warmed by the light of a world of hearts, nourished by the falling of a world of tears, rooted by the trunk of a world as one. And like the great tree is connected within itself, but also connected to the earth and sky, we are connected to our inner self, but also to others and life.
M/Gatlianne is an Author, Yoga Instructor, Interfaith Minister and Holistic Health & Reiki Practitioner based in Athens, AL. For more information, contact her at M@Gatlianne.com or visit Gatlianne.com, DeepRiversHealing.com, or DiscoverPath.com.
