Balance

Balance poses are very frustrating for many people!  Many say that progress in the balance pose in yoga is related to progress of balance in life.  Having balance in life is a challenge, especially in this very fast paced world:  there’s personal time, family time, work time, relationship time, creativity time — and the list goes on — there’s a lot to balance here!

It’s especially tricky in the summertime to find balance, as this is a time of activity.  It’s a time when kids are home, we travel, we go on vacation — sports, hiking, walking, picnics — we do everything that we can, because it’s beautiful outside.  While these are really healthy and fun activities to undertake, we can still lose ourselves in these activities.  And it’s a really critical time to be aware of the loss of  balance.  That’s why balance poses in yoga class are so helpful.

During balance poses in yoga classes – while having one foot in the air, we remind ourselves to maintain that inner connection, that sense of space inside, the connection to the breath, the sense of grounding, the earth beneath our feet, while standing tall on our own.

Tips on how to balance:

Simply feeling our feet on the earth helps us to balance.  Shift the attention to the feet and notice how they feel on the earth.  Notice how the ground feels beneath the feet.  This simple shift in awareness can help us with balance tremendously.  We are not only finding our own physical orientation, but we’re connecting again with our body, moving awareness inside.

Lift tall through the crown of the head.  This also helps us to orient ourselves, as well as remind us of our own presence.  When we get lost in other people or other activities, it’s easy to feel small.  Lifting tall reminds us of our height, our stature, our presence.

While maintaining this sense of grounding and height, lift one foot off of the ground.  Extend the foot in front of you (knee bent — or leg straight for a core focus), and for a more playful moving balance shift to extend the leg behind you — see how you do!  It doesn’t matter if you stay up on one leg or not, what matters is your awareness, orientation, and presence, within your body!

And so, during our very active summertime, when everything’s happening at once around us, let’s come back to our sense of grounding, connection, and balance!  If you can’t find it, come back to a yoga class!