It’s Impossible to Stay Still During Yoga Balance Poses. Here’s Why.

Claire’s tutorial on balance poses is featured in this month’s Yoga Journal. Text and image courtesy of Yoga Journal.

You know when you’re trying to balance in a yoga pose like Tree or Crow and feel yourself wobbling? Chances are you assume you’re doing something wrong.

You’re not.

Your feet contain 26 bones and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments each. Together they take part in an intricate interplay of subtle involuntary movements that maintain your balance each moment you’re standing. You also have 27 bones and more than 30 muscles in each hand that do the same when you’re practicing an arm balance or inversion. You literally can not be perfectly still when you’re in a yoga balance pose. It’s physiologically impossible.

This orchestration of nuanced shifts in your muscles, tendons, and ligaments takes place largely unconsciously. Practicing poses that challenge your balance can bring your conscious awareness to the slightest sway in your stance and how your body corrects itself. It can also help you learn how the tiniest intentional shift can cause you to regain your balance instead of falling.

With practice, you can bring self-awareness to how you show up to these postures. Learning how to accept the uncertainty of the moment with as much grace as you can muster, rather than tensing and telling yourself you’re in trouble, can help you understand the delicate balance between effort and ease that applies to any situation, in yoga as well as in life.