As we age, balance can become an issue. Have you ever felt your body teeter from one side to the next for no apparent reason?

Keeping your balance is dependant upon many parts of your body including your vestibular system or the inner ear (ever try to balance when you have an ear infection?!) and the strength of your muscles. As with most things, practice helps. Tree Pose is the classic balance pose in yoga. It’s wonderful to practice outside or looking through a window where you can see a tree.

How to do Tree Pose

• Stand tall. Shift your weight slightly onto the left foot, keeping the inner foot firm to the floor, and bend your right knee. Reach down with your right hand and clasp your right ankle.
• Draw your right foot up and place the sole against the inner left thigh; if possible, press the right heel into the inner left groin, toes pointing toward the floor. The center of your pelvis should be directly over the left foot.
• Rest your hands on the top rim of your pelvis. Make sure the pelvis is in a neutral position, with the top rim parallel to the floor.
• Lengthen your tailbone toward the floor. Firmly press the right foot sole against the inner thigh and resist with the outer left leg. Press your hands together at your heart in the prayer position. Gaze softly at a fixed point in front of you on the floor about 4 or 5 feet away.
• Stay for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Come back to standing with an exhalation and repeat for the same length of time with the legs reversed.

As you practice tree pose, feel your lower body rooting into the earth and your upper body reaching toward the sky, like the roots and branches of a tree. You will feel your thoughts slowing down as you connect deeply to nature while doing Tree Pose.

Benefits of Tree Pose

• Strengthens thighs, calves, ankles, and spine
• Stretches the groins and inner thighs, chest and shoulders
• Improves sense of balance
• Relieves sciatica and reduces flat feet

Balance isn’t just physical. Balance refers to the way we live our lives too. We all know people who live completely out of balance. Here’s the three C’s of finding flow, rhythm, and balance in your life. Give them a try and feel yourself coming into balance.

1. Congruence: Everywhere you are – whether it be at work, with your partner or with friends -- be your true self. When you compartmentalize yourself to be wildly different in different circumstances, you start to feel out of whack. Create a life that is congruent with who you truly are.

2. Connection: Everywhere you go, be in the moment. Don’t spend a lot of time in your head, thinking about your past and future. Be fully engaged, so you feel alive, and not like you are sleepwalking through life.

3. Contribution: Ask yourself how you can be the best you to the people around you. Make your heart your motivational center -- not your ego. When you feel you have something to give and are giving it, you feel instantly happier and like life is in flow.

Join us for Yoga on the Rox, Tuesdays 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. at Haney Park in Roxborough. For more information call Drew at 303-987-1004 or email drew@rcyoga.com. My studio website is www.rcyoga.com.

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Yoga at Roxborough with Drew Overholser

Intermediate Yoga – Tuesday mornings, 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.

Beginner Yoga – Tuesday mornings, 10:45 to noon.

Feel free to contact me by email (drew@rcyoga.com) if you have questions about yoga. My yoga studio is in south Lakewood. Our website is www.rcyoga.com.

303-987-1004

drew@rcyoga.com

The entire contents of roxborough info and shopper's square™are copyrighted by Angelika Koehne, and no part may be reproduced in whole or in part in any form, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the Publisher Angelika Koehne, P.O. Box 270 312, Littleton, Colorado, 80127-0312

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