do-able yoga balancing poses

why would we be looking at balancing poses?

and why "do-able"?

• balance is an important faculty
• and it affects our equilibrium, too, which is a big bonus 

(tree pose)

One of the most consistent things that I noticed as a yoga teacher, and for myself too, of course, was that everyone finds balance poses difficult. Because many people simply do not have good balance. No matter whether a child, teen, adult, or older. I know that it's a big thing as we get older, being able to balance on one leg, and I so wish that older people knew that nearly everyone finds them hard when they start yoga. I did, and I still do. And I'm quite sure that I'm not alone in this.

beautiful benefits of balance poses

Where they do get easier, is that when you're wobbling all over the place trying not to fall over, in, say, the tree pose, one of the easiest balance poses, you can experience a very brief moment of calmness and incredibly relaxed concentration. Like a pause, a moment in time. Quite sublime. And these fleeting moments, they do get longer in the pose. I do believe that this is one of the very best of the yoga benefits of these poses, because of course we come to experience the same feelings, states of being, whilst doing all of the yoga poses. But when we are standing on one leg, somehow it's different. 

I also found as a young yogini, that the balance poses gave me the ability to stand still, stand firm, be calm, in the face of small and big adversity. Just this, in itself, is an incredible bonus. 

What many people don't understand, is that the poses give us benefits which are beyond the physical aspects. They should enhance our life, and make us feel good. For example, going back to the stillness acquired from standing balance poses, those moments of inner stillness taught me quite quickly to go into the stillness of moments of my life, reminding me of the following verse:

"for what is life, so full of care, if there is no time to stand and stare?"

making balance poses easier and more do-able

So for the above reasons, as a yoga teacher, I encourage beginners, people who have been unwell, anyone who has damage to lower back, hips, knees, ankles, or feet, to do the balance poses so that the balance, rather than the full pose, is the important aspect. What this means is to:

• do easier versions so that you can actually hold the pose
• if it helps, have your shoulders back against wall with your feet a bit away from the wall, so that you can gently rock a tiny bit forward so that you are standing unaided
• use the wall or a bench to rest one hand (or both) on for balance poses where you are leaning the torso a bit forward and lifting one leg up behind you, or in warrior three
• press down hard on the standing big toe as this helps with balance (and I forget why ... )
• drinking enough water each day is good for our ears and this also influences our ability to balance, and it's that our inner ears need water

And I also encourage people to hold a balance for five seconds, then ten seconds, and from here working up to three or five slow, deep breaths, then if you are up to it, doing a minute or more each side.  

support for the standing leg

As well as using a wall for support, we can do other things to make the standing leg strong in the pose:

• for beginners, the standing leg can be gently bent
• to strengthen the ankles, tighten the muscles around the ankle
• to strengthen the knees and thighs, "pull up" the muscles above the knee 

These two "tightenings" are for when we are able to straighten a standing leg. And are also good tips for any strong standing poses.

other aids

With all of this "gripping" of muscles, the one place that should be kept relaxed for some of the standing one-legged balances, is the lower back-hip area. To allow a stronger flow of energy and release tension in those lower torso areas. 

However, for poses where the leg goes up behind us, contracting the buttock/s helps sustain the pose. Often the abdominals will be stretched, and the contraction allows the stretch to happen, so that we can do the pose, as in the standing bow, and warrior three, which I also call the stick pose (it has a lot of different names).

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

(warrior three: the arms can be stretched forward resting on a bench to help with balance)