Welcome to Asana Yoga Journal - Expert Advice and Yoga Tips by Yogananth Andiappan

In Yoga, balancing postures are considered very important as it not only helps improve our strength, body alignment, but also improves our concentration, self confidence and develops inner focus. It is not just about holding the posture straight but to experience relaxation and ease in the posture. When we find the centre, the balance and the equilibrium, it becomes effortless and suppleness can be experienced while holding the posture. These tips are only for leg balancing poses such as Tree (Vrkshasana), Dancer (Natarajasana), Warrior (Veerabhadrasana), Eagle (Garudasana) etc.

1.	Use the Wall: When you intiallypratise a balancing pose, it's nothing wrong to use the wall support. It helps us to keep our body still first before finding the balance. The wall is to support the balance but not to lean and support your whole body weight. For example, when you do the tree pose and raise your arms up to the prayer position, you can just gently touch the tip of the thumb to the wall and slowly remove it as you gain control over the balance.
2.	Don't fight the balance: If you try to fight and get the balance, you will definitely fall. All balancing poses are just resting the body's weight onto one leg in a centred manner and relaxing into it. So just let the body weight rest on the foot evenly on the floor.
3.	Don't close your eyes: It’s very difficult to balance when your eyes are closed. Infact, it’s the most advanced way of balancing. You only close your eyes when you are able to balance well and able to focus inwards, keeping the awareness on the breath and the whole body.
4.	Arms: Initially stretch your arms to the side or hold your hips to find the balance. When you raise your arms up, your body becomes long and it wobbles. It’s the same theory of a long pole wobbling more than a short pole.
5.	Knee: Give proper support to the knee. It's ok to lock the knee as long as you engage the thigh muscles to support the knee lock. But if you have hyper extended knee or bow legs, you shouldnot lock the knee but slightly unlock the knee. Initially, you can also practise balancing poses with the knee slightly bent as it will help engage the muscles.
6.	Heels: Avoid wearing high heels as much as possible.It makes your foot planterflexed, which affects your stability of the ankles, knee and your soles. It affects your whole body posture starting from the hip, back and even the neck. The most obvious problem will be the shortening of the Achilles Tendon which makes your foot unevenly balanced.
7.	Drishti- Focus: Don't focus into the mirror image as it will keep your focus outwards. You can focus on one point or gaze straight to the eye level. You can also focus on the breath, navel centre, or on the big toe.
8.	Alignment: As a beginner, don't focus too much on alignment such as keeping the hip parallel and spreading the toes wider etc. It will happen naturally as you progress in your flexibility in other postures and gain awareness over your body.
9.	Best Time: If your balancing is poor, the best time to practise balancing posture is in the morning, as the natural tightness of the body in the morning helps make balancing a little easier.
10.	Stretching: Practise the Vajrasana with the toes tucked under the heels and stepping on the balls of the foot posture regularly. This will help stretch your feet muscles and activate your toes which help spread the weight evenly to all corners of the feet.