Celebrate the Earth - Take your Tree Pose Outside

Earth Day 2025 is this Tuesday, April 22nd.  Earth Day is an annual global event that focuses on raising awareness and promoting action from individuals, organizations, corporations and governments to protect the planet's environment. It's a day to demonstrate support for environmental protection and to build energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to protect our beautiful planet.

There are many things we can do as individuals and communities to support the Earth.  We can learn, advocate, take part in Earth Day activities, sign a pledge.  The Earth Day website is a treasure trove of ideas and information.  Find it HERE.  And we can work to reduce our own impact on the planet with our everyday actions.  Reuse and recycle, reduce our use of plastics, water, electricity and fossil fuels, choose locally grown and locally made, consider a plant-based diet, choose natural fabrics instead of synthetics, make earth-conscious, sustainable choices with every purchase.  (FYI…this is the ETHOS and the driving force behind HUM.)

As a lovely way to celebrate the beauty and bounty of our planet and to celebrate the return of spring, I invite you to do TREE POSE WITH TREES. 
 
Tree pose (Vrksasana) is a challenging balance pose, my favourite.  It helps me to feel steady, calm and connected to the Earth.  I love balancing on one strong leg, focusing my gaze on a single point, trying to stay still and solid in my centre as I raise my arms to the sky.  It’s like creating a connection between Universe and Earth. 

Balancing in Tree Pose, you can image that your standing foot has strong and deep roots that solidly ground and steady you. Like a tree, you can imagine your roots also connect you with others all around you, whether you can see them or not. 

While you are rooting down, your hands reach to the sky, like branches they reach for the light and nourishment, they reach for the stars.

What better way to reconnect with Earth energy?!?

 So this week, take your tree pose outside and practice it in the company of trees.  Here’s how to do TREE POSE (Vrksasana)…

• Starting in Mountain Pose, slowly shift your weight over to your left foot. Imagine strong roots reaching down into the earth from all four corners for your foot.
• Engage your core muscles.
  
• Find a single point to focus your gaze, this will help you to stay solid.
  
• Bring your right foot up to tiptoes and externally rotate your right hip, opening your knee out to the right. Bring the sole of your right foot to press against the inside edge of your standing leg at a comfortable height (ankle, shin or upper thigh). Hug the muscles of your legs to the bones. Feel you are rooted to the earth.  Here is where the core muscles help.
  
• Bring your hands to press together at heart centre into anjali mudra. 
  
• When you’re ready, reach your arms up, imagining branches of light extending from your hands  and up to the sky, reaching for the light. Notice how it feels to expand energetically in this beautiful pose.  And if you fall out of the pose, just try again!
  
• You can be playful in tree pose, wave your branches, balancing and swaying like a tree in the wind, solidly grounded by your roots. All the while, breathing mindfully into your trunk, aware of each free movement, each connection.
  
• Stay for 5-10 breaths, then mindfully bring your knee to the front and release your foot down back to Mountain Pose and observe any difference in sensations from right to left.
  
• Practice Tree Pose on the opposite leg.  

TIP: It’s hard to do Tree Pose if you are not focusing on the present moment. The second your mind wanders is when you will wobble and fall out of it. So this is an opportunity to deepen your awareness and connection to the present moment.

We can learn a lot in the company of trees if we know how to look and listen, to hear their quiet truths. They may seem passive and immobile, but they are quite clever. We can take example from their sense of community and compassion. To me, trees reaching for the sky while rooting deeply into the earth stand for strength, steadiness, flexibility, comfort and wisdom, patience and perseverance.  And they can be a source of inspiration.  Have a look at this post I wrote a couple of years ago:  Life Lessons from Trees

Enjoy the spring awakening!