Mountain Pose

Most students either collapse into Tadasana, letting gravity do the standing for them, or over-correct into a rigid, held-together stance. Neither is the pose. The work is finding a standing position the body could really sustain, one where the bones are doing the stacking and the muscles are doing the least amount of holding necessary.

To find an efficient, awake standing position that becomes the reference point for every other pose in the practice.

1. 1Stand with feet hip-width apart, or touching if that's stable for you, weight even across both feet.
2. 2Lift and spread the toes, then let them settle back down, feeling all four corners of each foot on the floor.
3. 3Let the kneecaps face forward without locking the knees back.
4. 4Lengthen the tailbone down as the crown of the head lifts up, so the low back isn't over-arched or tucked away.
5. 5Let the shoulders roll back and down, away from the ears, without pinning the shoulder blades together.
6. 6Let the arms hang naturally at the sides, palms facing in.
7. 7Find one steady, unforced breath before moving on.

Instead of searching for the “correct” position, notice:

• •Ears, shoulders, hips, and ankles roughly stacked over each other.
• •Weight even between the front and back of the foot, not braced into the heels or pitched onto the toes.
• •Low belly gently engaged, not gripped or sucked in.
• •Jaw and face relaxed. Tension here is a good tell for tension everywhere else.

Nothing to manufacture. Let the breath be as ordinary as the pose looks. What you're checking for is whether the ribs can move at all in this stance, or whether the way you're standing is quietly restricting them.

The tell is in where a student's weight truly sits, so check that before you say anything. Rocking, gripped toes, or locked knees usually mean the nervous system doesn't trust standing still, not that the student misunderstood the instructions. Give it a few breaths before cueing corrections. Some of what you'd fix will settle on its own once they stop performing "standing" and just stand.

Reflect after practising:

• •This isn't a rest pose. Notice the difference between held-up and switched-off.
• •If your mind wants to skip this and get to something more interesting, that instinct is worth sitting with rather than acting on.

Rather than mistakes, you may notice:

• •Practice against a wall first if postural feedback is hard to feel: heels, sacrum, upper back, and back of the head lightly touching.
• •Close the eyes briefly once the shape feels familiar. Balance without visual reference sharpens the feet's role in the pose.

• •Feet hip-width apart instead of together for anyone with balance concerns or a wider stance in daily life.
• •Hands on the hips instead of at the sides if the arms hanging free is distracting rather than neutral.

• ✓No exit needed. Tadasana is usually a starting or resetting point rather than a pose you release from.