ताड़ासन
Tadasana — Mountain Pose
tāḍa = palm tree / mountain — standing tall as a mountain
The mother of standing poses: standing still, done fully.
In the simplest words
Stand up as tall as you can, like a mountain that nobody can push over. Now stretch your arms up high, come onto your tiptoes, and grow even taller!
What it is
Tadasana looks like nothing: a person standing still. That is the point. It teaches what every other standing pose is built on. Weight even across both feet, knees soft, spine growing tall, crown reaching up like a tree reaching for light. Practised with the arms stretched overhead and heels lifted, it becomes a full stretch of the whole body from floor to fingertips.
Before you practise: health first
Very safe. With low blood pressure or dizziness, skip the tiptoe balance and keep the heels down near a wall.
Getting into it
Stand with feet together or hip-width, weight even across heels and toes.
Lift the kneecaps a little, lengthen the tailbone down, let the belly be easy.
Roll the shoulders back and down; let the arms hang, palms forward.
Grow tall through the crown of the head; breathe slowly.
For the full stretch: interlace fingers, stretch palms to the sky, rise onto the toes on an in-breath, hold, and lower on the out-breath.
The breath
Slow, even breathing; rise on the inhale, settle on the exhale.
What it is kept for
Posture, balance and body-awareness, and the correct start of Surya Namaskar.