ताड़ासन
Tadasana — Mountain Pose
tāḍa = palm tree / mountain — standing tall as a mountain
The mother of standing poses: simply standing — completely.
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 — and that is its secret: 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 gently, 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.