Five Minute Tadasana

I stood in Tadasana for 5 minutes today. At first I was flying. Everything felt light and free. After a minute or so I noticed my body start to "settle". Different muscle groups "kicked in" and then let go as I would lose and restore balance. The longer I stood there, the more I could feel my feet. At first it was just the bottoms and then the feeling crept up to the tops of the feet and then to the ankles. Every once in a while I would lose balance, my torso would feel as if it were falling back and the quads would come to the rescue. Little twitches were popping up here and there. When the concentration was lost, my knees would hyper-extend. It was a lot more work to keep them aligned! Eventually, it was not evident where my feet ended and the floor began. All the while, not a sound was heard from the upper back, shoulders or arms. Wow.

In all the years of practicing yoga, I never truly experienced Tadasana as a challenging balance pose. I guess I never gave it the chance :-)