One of my very favorite songs is I’m a Mountain by Sarah Harner. It’s a peppy song that has one particular line that I love, “you must decide if you will die or grow.” Sometimes in life problems, situations, circumstances, challenges, whatever you like to call them, come up that feel enormous, immovable and non-negotiable, like a mountain. It feels like little you again the odds.
But even mountains have nuances depending on the stories we spin around them. Sure, you can give up and sometimes for a little while it can be worth a rest at the base of the mountain to accept what is real. With that stillness, acceptance and perspective, something is revealed; the possibility of a way around, or through, or over. In that process of standing firm, of not giving up, of believing in your own stable, strong, majestic, inspiring self, you stop fighting the mountain and become one. You grow.
Navigating life’s mountains, and becoming one is a practice of vision and belief and trust. It might be just the adventure you need. Are you ready?
Mountain pose is a pose like no other. It’s deceiving. It looks so simple, just standing upright. The everyday erosion of life’s repetitive movements and held-for-too-long-positions (like sitting) have eroded that most simple act of just standing. Gravity can be glorious and grounding or quicksand pulling us back to the ashes from which we were formed. In mountain pose, stand up head yearning for the sun and feet rooted to the earth and find the energy to be fully alive and courageous, ready to move and take the easy, and not so easy, actions in life.
The spine is the main stabilizer of our body mountain. In mountain pose, called Tadasana (tah-DAHS-uh-nuh) the feet are together, balls of your big toes touching, heels slightly apart, soles of your feet pressing into the earth. Your legs are engaged, tailbone dropping down, the pelvis level, not tipping forward or back with the belly drawn slightly in. The whole lower body is drawn down with gravity, while the upper body lifts from the heart, taking the weight of the rib cage off the lungs, the heart pressing forward and up toward the sternum.
The crown of the head lifts, so it feels like your skull is a bobble doll’s head balancing on your spine. The chin is slightly tucked pulled back with your ears aligned over the shoulders. The arms are slightly away from the body with the palms turned out, shoulder blades reaching toward each other as the collar bones spread and soften.
Mountain pose in your first explorations might feel stiff and tiring. The body is so used to the curving-forward-at-my-computer posture. Mountain pose feels awkward, vulnerable and almost boastful compared to the typical hunched, heart-protective way of standing.
Once everything is aligned the real magic happens. Can you find that beautiful point of balance between effort and ease? In mountain pose, some muscles have to engage and some have to soften.
Can you find awareness to decipher which muscles need to engage and which ones need to relax? Can you find your ujjayi breath like a cool breeze rustling up and down and around your mountain? Sink in and abide in this pose. It’s home base. Make it YOUR home base. Become your own mountain…and decide you are ready to grow.
Let Adriene guide you through mountain pose so it can be your home base, standing in line to get coffee, at the printer or making that important presentation. It will change the presence of your body, and your mind.