Tree Pose - Vrksasana - Yoga With Adriene

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to yoga withadrien. I am Adrien. Today we are going to learn tree pose. One of the most well-known poses in the western yoga world, meaning that it's uh taught a lot. So um this is a balancing posture, great for the legs, great for the entire body and mind and soul. Let's hop on the mat and learn brooksa tree pose. [Music] Okay. So, we're going to begin uh standing tall. We'll bring our attention to the feet and bring the feet flush together here. So, side by side, I'm going to take a second to lift up my toes and really spread my awareness through all four corners of the feet. So the ball joint of the big toe, the ball joint of the pinky toe, and the back two corners of the heel. So I'm really spreading awareness and plugging down through the earth. And I'll soften the knees here. And just like I do in tadasan, just kind of roll up through the spine and find that lift. So I'm kind of drawing energy up through the arches of the feet, lifting and lengthening through the chest, up through the crown of the head. Tadasana, mountain pose, grounding through the back body. So I have my opposition here. I'm not sinking into my bones, but I'm lifting and lengthening up nice and tall. Blue healer, everybody. Okay, I'll draw the palms together at the heart. Okay, draw the palms together at the heart. Blue didn't want to do tree pose today. He's going to go do chioasana instead. Okay. Uh from here, palms together at the heart. Analy mudra. Again, I'm not just collapsing here, but you know, I'm taking this time for myself to really press into the palms, maybe lift the sternum up to the thumbs, and loop the shoulders a little bit. Forward, up, and back. Nice and tall. Now, I'm going to shift my weight over into my left foot. Again, pressing through all four corners of the foot. I'll peel up through the right heel. Nice and slow. Especially for beginners, don't rush this. Take your time. Take your time, everyone. Take your time. I'm going to keep my pelvis tucked in, lengthening down through the back of uh my spine. So, I'll turn for a quick second here because the found this is foundations of yoga. So, we're taking we're especially taking our time here to just kind of show the the basic alignment and foundations here. So, as I peel up into this kind of like 1950s60s girl group pose, um my pelvis is going to want to tuck out here. My mic. Um, and I want to keep it tucked in support head over heart, heart over pelvis. Okay. So, I'm lifting up from the earth. I'm looping the shoulders to ground down through the back body. Tucking the pelvis, lengthening through the tailbone and lower back. And then I may begin to slowly lift my knee up. Hey. From here, I'll interlace the fingertips and just take a couple breaths here. Just noticing what you have to do in that standing leg to balance. So for me it's shifting my weight back into my heels kind of forward there and then also kind of finding that integrity through the center channel. Lifting mulabunda up through the crown of the head. Then I'll slowly release back down and just notice what that was like. Take stock. Palms back together at the heart. Take a deep breath in and exhale. Lifting and lengthening. I'll slowly peel the left heel up. Check in. Taking my time. Tucking the pelvis, lengthening through the lower back and tail. And slowly lift that left knee up. Interlace. Bring it around. And just check in. Now, you might not uh be stable here. So, we'll talk about some variations in just a moment and I'll write more about it on the blog. But we can also practice this especially beginners um next to a wall for a little support. So, when we start to feel that balance, we press back up and find that integrity through the center. Drawing the navl in towards the spine here. Inhale and cool. That was a nice check in. Slowly lower down. Palms back to the heart. Anjeline mudra. Each time I come here, I lift my sternum up to the thumbs. And now going into tree pose. Peeling the heel up. Taking my time. And then from here, I'm going to take my right hand and open this knee out wide. So, I'm really paying attention to the sensations in the hip here. And just noticing if I'm having to like crank that leg out or if it's opening nice and easy. Just checking in. Pressing into all four corners of the standing leg. I'm lifting up through the center channel. Now, a couple of options. Full pose. I'll grab the ankle here and draw it in to the inner thigh here, my left leg. Now, the tendency is to press that right foot into the inner thigh because you're going to want to hold on for stability. So, I'm going to encourage us as an action point to press back with that left thigh. So, we have this opposition going all the time this way that we talk about a lot in foundations of yoga. Now, I'm talking about it here. Drawing everything into the center, letting the top of the right thigh draw out and away. So, I'm softening here as I open up. Tucking the pelvis. I'm going to turn to the side just to show you this alignment here. So, the tendency is to come here. So, I'm going to let this roll out by scooping the tailbone under and down. Letting this roll out here, drawing the navl in towards the spine. And then maybe I come palms back to the heart. Now, a couple of modifications here. We're still on the right leg. If I can't, I can well, I can bring my leg all the way up here. And again, as I said before, use the wall to just kind of bounce off here. So if I start to fall, I can still practice building this strength and this integrity from the crown of the head to the tip of the tail, really from the arch of the foot, drawing up. So I'm plugging into the earth, but I'm also lifting up and out. Um, if I'm here, I can come all the way arms up. I can come into a mudra of my choice. Maybe turn the pinkies in to open the shoulders. So, I'm not here. And again, I have active body here. So, I'm really lifting and lengthening up, pressing that left thigh in to meet the right sole of the foot. And a couple modifications. So, I can bring the leg all the way up to here. I can also bring it here. Just kind of letting this soften. And in time, you know, check in with my balance, perhaps create more stability in the body. Or I can even if I'm not wanting to use the wall or even if I do have the wall, I can keep my big toe on the earth here. Slowly practicing the action points of tucking the pelvis in, lifting through the front body, softening that right hip out and around top of the thigh, kind of wrapping around here. So I have this option, I have this option, I have this option here, using this thigh to press back. I do not recommend or I encourage you to kind of steer clear of this option because that's my knee joint. Yeah. So, even though it's kind of nice little place for my the arch of my foot to stand, uh it's no good. It's just in it's too much pressure on the knee and we want to be able to meet both body parts together to find that lift in the asa. So, this is no good. Don't use this thumbnail. No, use here, here, or here. Okay. So, after we've checked in on the right side, we'll release same way we came up, back down. Maybe take a nice deep breath in, reaching the fingertips up, and then exhale back to the heart. Let's check her out on the other side. Peeling up now through the left heel and kind of finding my foundation and finding that lift from the earth before I even lift that leg. Also, I should have said this before. Um, but using um the focus here to help balance in the posture. So, you know, we're constantly like this. Here's a place where we get to practice this soft focus. Maybe just past the nose here. You can find a little speck of dirt or dust or something on the earth uh the ground in front of you to focus on. We call this adishi. The focus. Focus is important. And then from there for after I've anchored my eyes in my dishi with my dishi rather I'll slowly begin to lift that left knee up checking in spreading my awareness through all four corners of that right foot and drawing up. So when I'm sinking into this hipbone ouch it's harder to find stability when I'm lifting up. Very similar when we're on all fours like during cat cow and we kind of press up and out of the earth rather than sinking in. Same action point here. really coming into the body, lighting that fire to find balance, using those opposing forces to find that balance. Okay, from here I'm gonna open the left knee out and you decide. Check in with um I'm on the opposite side here. Sorry, I'm like I feel like I'm talking tree posing doing this at the same time. So drawing that left foot in, pressing back with the right inner thigh. Head over heart, heart over pelvis here. Tucking in the pelvis to find that lift, that length. And you can have the hands on the waistline here too. You can have them do whatever you want, right? Find your own expression. I'm always encouraging that. One as a way for us to get into the poses and evolve. Another as a way to, you know, really find what feels good. Maybe my version of this pose is not the best version for you. Okay, palms can come here. I can inhale, reach the fingertips up. Sometimes I like to purposely tell my students in and public classes to wave to kind of throw themselves off balance so they can connect to that that line, that center, kind of practice finding balance in the challenging moments. Metaphor palms come together here. And I just want to point out on this side as well that we can bring the foot here below the knee. We can even bring the left toes here. And remember, every day is different. That's the beautiful thing about balancing postures is there's no hiding in them. It's kind of you have to be really truthfully yourself and in the moment. And they're always different, right? Can't pretend. Can also use the wall for a little stability here. Coming back down the way we came up. Pressing through all four corners of the feet. Equal parts standing. We'll talk about this another day. Samastiti. I think we might talk about it a little bit in the tadasana video. And then just to close it off, softening in the knees. Inhale. Spread the palms. Reach up. Deep breath. And exhale back at the heart. Okay. So that was tree pose. beautiful balancing posture. As I mentioned before, like one of the beautiful things about balancing postures is you can't really hide in them. You kind of have to meet them wherever you are today. So, meet it where you are today. No toxic thoughts. Just see where you are. Use that wall if you need to. Let me know how it goes. And um yeah, be sure to like us on Facebook if you haven't already. . I was about to go into old man voice again. Um and yeah, let me know how it goes. Love you guys. Namaste. [Music] [Music]