Journal on Tādāsana: My Dirty Kitchen, and Not Going to Starbucks

Though I did not keep a daily log of the pose Tādāsana, I did keep coming back to this posture in my thoughts and have deepened my understanding of this first standing posture. Tādāsana: mountain pose. The two symbols break down to the root words: “tࠡāda” (mountain) and “āsana” (posture or pose.) Symbolically, mountains represent height, strength, and most notably “stillness.”

I am a task master and a list maker. Earlier this week, I counted out that I was part of eight organizations -- I was literally spinning. I need more “mountain” more “grounding” more “stillness.” So I paused -- in my journal -- and, instead of journaling the physical pose, I started to journal around the concept of slowing down and releasing tasks. The first two items on my list, I released gracefully -- resigning from my positions on prestigious boards. Then when I got to the the third item on my list -- a storm broke out over my mountain. Literally lightning struck -- and I may have a scorched, hillside. (Basically my resignation from the third group did not go smoothly.) Mountain were not formed over night-- but day by day for a million years. Even letting go, I needed to do more slowly.

All my life people have said that I need to be more “grounded.” I am not even sure I could give a clear definition of what that means “to be grounded.” But I do understand that slowing down, and being okay with stillness is me making significant strides towards grounded. This morning for instance, I took one look at our kitchen, sink full of dishes, yesterday’s -- or was it the day before’s dinner crumbs on the counter, cabinet doors swung open -- we had obviously used the kitchen and not returned it to the “ready position.” My first thought: I should just go to Starbucks and not deal with this. My second thought: I’ll start the dishes. And I did. And cleaned the counters. And as I sit here writing this-- I still left all the cabinet doors half open. I’m on my path -- but not there. By restoring order to the kitchen -- I will feel better, okay, relaxed in my household space and therefore more “grounded” -- more capable of just being here and not running elsewhere.

The posture itself is part of the five minute series that I plan to teach Sunday night -- that being said, I have practiced it daily and said aloud what I might tell one who is trying to find stillness. How to start by moving the toes, then constricting the inner muscle of the foot, feeling the shins and knees lift, the thighs rotate, the tail bone lengthen, the shoulder drop and relax down the back, the chest open, the crown of the head pulled heavenward, the throat and jaw relax, the eyes gaze-- but the hands? I’ve been to two classes this week and both instructors did different things with the hands. Do the thumbs point forward or sideways? And then breathe.

In one of the yoga classes I attended this past week, Bekah C. asked, while we were in mountain pose: “What are you moving towards?” I love that she connected the spiritual/ mental/ emotional to the physical pose. She also suggested: “Release the weight of the world, if it has found its way to your shoulders.” This, to me, is grounding: connecting the body (the physical) to the Self (the eternal) -- balancing the mind’s restlessness and vastness with the ground’s finite stillness. And if we can do this, maybe we can just be in our dirty kitchen instead of need to run off to Starbucks.