Vrksa means tree. This posture develops the ‘grounding of the tree’ in you, bringing in a sense of poise, balance and stability.
Method
Step 1: Stand in Tadasana
Step 2: Place your hands on your waist
Step 3: Bend your right knee to place your right foot at the root of the left leg. The right heel should touch the source of the leg and the toes of right foot should face the floor.
Step 4: Lengthen the body by engaging the standing leg completely, pull its thigh into the groin, adjust your hips in one line, so that, the body is not tilting to one side, squeeze the left hip to get a better grip on left groin, lengthen each vertebrae away from one another with the chest diagonally lifted up, thereby, bringing the shoulder blades closer to each other as well as oriented downward towards the floor, the leg below the knee is almost at 90º and parallel to the floor. Push your bent knee to the back to get this position.
Step 5: Maintaining the above balance, stretch your arms apart, as much as possible away from each other, this will activate your core region; with inhalation, steadily raise your stretched arms up towards the ceiling; you should feel the stretch on the sides, with your ribs stretching apart and then going up with the movement of your arms. Interlock your fingers except your index fingers which are stretched out and pressed against each other. Palms are pressed against each other too.
Step 6: In this final position, press your left foot firmly on the floor to lift your body up, push your right foot firmly against the left leg to build up stability, maintain the length of your body through out and check the lengthening & strengthening effect from the bottom of your foot to the top of your index fingers.
Note: Shoulders have a tendency to go up and come close to your ear lobes, which creates a strain on the neck. To avoid this, roll the shoulders slightly to the back and put it down. Slightly tuck in your chin as well to align your head with your neck.
As one graduates with practice, move on to Virbhadrasana III and Ardha Chandrasana and further more.
Benefits
- Balancing postures need a one pointed attention, which requires a stable mind. With regular practice of these asanas, one begins to develop those organs which make stability a second nature, whether it is physical or mental.
Yogic Breathing: Coming to the breathing aspect, one needs to understand sectional breathing first and then combine it right to move on to ‘Yogic Breathing.’
Caution: Though there had been instances of negative effects like increased anxiety, with rapid breathing, pre-pondering more into a depressive state after meditation practices or being self-critical about not being able to perform like some others. These cases have been due to taking extreme yoga practices. One has to be careful to start with moderate practice and then move on as and when one gets control over each minute aspect of the yogic journey to living a Bipolar Free life.