As we progress through the first few classes of the year, those of you that have attended the recent classes may have noticed how much core strength plays a role in how steady our standing balances are.

Of course to me, it does not matter how long you stay in your balancing pose. I hope it does’nt especially matter to you either.

What is great about standing balances is the concentration, and the bodies natural ability to fix the problem we present it with; to some extent the less we think about the problem and the more we focus on our breath and our gaze (drishti), the more the body and neural network solves the issue we have given it; be it standing on one leg with the other raised and held with the hands, or in a more complex pose like “Revolved Half Moon” (Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana).

As a practitioner of yoga, do you think some of the big balancing postures such as Tree (Vrikshasana), Warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana III) or Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana), possess a different nature to them? Do they create a different feeling in the body and mind, compared to say a seated pose, or standing pose with both feet planted like in Tadasana (Montain pose)? When you finish practicing a typical ‘balancing pose’, how do you feel?
It is these aspects that make balancing poses belong to a different category of poses, they certainly create a different effect within the body, a different challenge for the mind, and the outcome/post pose sensation is yet again different compared to other poses. All of this is for you to experience during the practice.

How much attention you bring to your own practice will impact the outcome of your session. There is a bit of an equation; focus and mental effort do result in different outcomes for your energetic and mental disposition following your asana practice. If there is zero focus, and you adopt autopilot and go through the motions following the teacher and ignoring the sensations present within your body there is very little deeper internal effect to be felt; yoga is still beneficial if this is where you take your practice – stretching and joint mobility is still happening for sure, and both can be ‘relaxing’. There is so much more though, if you dig a little deeper; I’d invite you to use the teacher as a guide, but explore the pose’s yourself- you can go as deep as you wish to go mentally, bringing the focus to the practice time and time again. One day you won’t be reliant on the teacher to guide you; this is truly a great place to get to in the end. The physical yoga practice can always be something you do, wherever you are, and regardless of your financial situation.

A great place to notice the effects of the mind on the body (and vice versa), is within balancing postures; use them as a mirror to reflect back to you what your mind does in the situation you are presented with. Theres no right or wrong, simply your experience.

Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana (Revolved Half Moon)