Tree Pose

Hello everyone, welcome to Yoga & You, my name is Niranjani. In the previous video, we saw how to do Tadasana. Now moving forward, we will see how to practice Vṛkṣāsana. Vṛkṣāsana is a standing balancing posture, it is called as a tree pose, because it resembles a tree's steady stance.

Now moving on to the practice, let's come to Tadasana, keeping your knees and your feet together, weight equally shifted on all the four sides of your feet, fingers spread and active, shoulders away from your ears, your spine neutral. And now from here, fixing your gaze at one point, let's place our hands on our waist. Now taking your right foot off the mat, shifting your weight to your left leg. Now let's place our right palm on our right ankle. Now let's slowly shift our right foot closer to our left inner thigh, bringing it closer to our groin. And now from here, opening out the right side of your hip, pointing your right knee towards your right side, let's stay there, placing your hands on your waist.

If you are very comfortable, now let's release our hands, we'll join our palms to our heart, bringing our hands into Namaskar mudra. And if you're even more comfortable with complete awareness, now let's raise our arms up, stay there for few breaths, breathe, and slowly on exhale, bring your hands down, back on your waist. And now from here, with awareness, without losing balance, with control, let's release our right leg down and relax.

And now we'll move on to do the same on the other side, again fixing your gaze at one point, this time we'll shift our weight to the right side. Now taking your left leg off the mat, catching hold of your left leg. Now let's place our left foot close to our right inner thigh, your left knee pointing out. And now from here, releasing your hands, inhale, raising your arms up, let's stay there, breathe, balance. Slowly on exhale, let's bring it down, hands back on your waist, with control, slowly, let's release our left leg down and relax, coming back to Tadasana.

In case if you're finding it difficult to do the full posture, now we'll move on to the variation of Vṛkṣāsana, again coming into Tadasana, we'll place our hands on our waist, fixing your gaze at one point, this time shifting your weight to your left leg, we'll take our right leg and now this time we'll place our right foot just above our knee. So in case even if it's difficult, no worries, you can place your foot below your knee. But make sure that your toes are pointing down, we'll stay here and if you're very comfortable you can join your palms or raise your arms up or you can even take a wall support, again slowly from here, bringing your hands back on your waist, with control, release your right leg down and then we'll repeat the same on the other side.

Now coming into Tadasana, fixing your gaze at one point, placing your hands on your waist, shifting your weight to your right foot, we'll take our left leg off the mat, catching hold of your left leg, we can either place our left foot above our knee or below our knee. And now from here, opening out your hips, bringing your left knee to your left side, placing your hands on your waist, if very comfortable you can join your palms or you can raise your arms up, in case if you're finding it even more difficult, you can use a wall support. And now from here, dismounting the same way, releasing your hand, place your hands on your waist, with control, release your left leg down, coming back to Tadasana.

Practicing Vṛkṣāsana has many benefits, it improves awareness and concentration, it improves our lung capacity, it helps with the axial extension of our spine, it strengthens our legs and our spinal muscles, it reduces stiffness in our knees, our ankles and our hips, and it also promotes joint health, it improves concentration, stability, and it quietens our mind, and it also improves focus.

Now moving on to the limitations of Vṛkṣāsana, people who have knee or ankle injuries should take necessary precaution, and people who have epilepsy or vertigo should practice under guidance or completely avoid the posture. I hope this helps. Thank you.