The way we stand in Tadasana is revealing of where we stand in life.  Does the way our feet connect with the earth reflect a sense of foundation and feeling safe?  The imprint of our feet on wet sand tells us whether our body weight is evenly distributed or not.  Does our body from the waist up feel open and receptive?  It is important to understand the inner meaning of how we stand in Tadasana.  For instance, if more weight is put on the toes and ball of the feet - which is a common occurrence aggravated by wearing high-heel shoes, we are working too much from the front of our body, leading with the head and projecting into the future.  More weight placed on the heels can be interpreted as an attempt to reach back into the past.  When we live in the future or the past, unable to let go of either, our eyes are blind to all the beauty around us and there is no inner smile in our hearts.  Tadasana teaches us how to let go of the past and the future to be fully in the present moment.

Our feet tell the story of how we stand and use/misuse them.  Too much pressure on one side/too little pressure on another means that the weight is not evenly distributed and this will be echoed throughout the whole body.  Because in the West we keep our feet in socks and closed shoes for most of the year, we forget to give them the attention they require.  Many people are unaware how a poor distribution of one's weight on one's own two feet affects the whole body; we can see that the soles of our shoes always wear out on the same side each time and yet we'd rather change shoes than modify our posture.  The aim is to be centered on the bottom of each foot, inner and outer ankles and arches of the feet lifting upward equally

When we stand in Tadasana, we need to spend some time experimenting with placing our weight alternatively on the different corners of our feet, moving slowly and carefully back and forth and from side to side like a pendulum so that we may feel the point of balance.  By consciously moving out of alignment, we often get a better idea of what being aligned feels like. 

It is sometimes difficult to find out the initial cause(s) of poor posture but because the body works as a whole, one part of it cannot be addressed without some or all of the others being addressed too.  All our systems are inter-related and inter-dependent.  What now manifests itself as poor standing posture may originate in unresolved emotions, muscular imbalances, physiological disorders, etc.  And if the original cause remains deeply buried in the folds of our consciousness and is not remedied to, it will somehow, sooner or later, find another more insidious way to manifest itself.  Nothing happens without a reason, and nothing goes away without a reason. 

We are offered many opportunities to practice Tadasana in our daily life, waiting at the bus stop or queuing at the supermarket checkout.  There is no doubt that practising Tadasana helps improve posture and gives us clues as to how we carry our body, in particular the spine.  This knowledge may prevent incurring back problems in subsequent years, but for this to happen, we must learn to integrate the teachings of Tadasana into our daily life.  There is a great emphasis in yoga on the strength and straightness of the spine or "Merudandasana" - the mountainous staff.  The spine is the energy core of the body, the central axis of creation.  As we connect to this core centre, tension and effort melt away and dissipate from the outer supporting muscles, restoring the natural state of fluidity and elasticity of the spine so that we can experience "the wave" as described by Vanda Scaravelli.  A steady and straight spine is necessary so that the energy can flow freely and unimpeded through all the chakras.  Tadasana is predominantly a Muladhara Chakra posture (1st chakra) but all the other chakras further up the spine are also involved.  The first chakra is connected with the element earth and embodies physical and emotional grounding.  It enables us to be less in our head and more in our body.  Strengthening the Muladhara Chakra gives us an increased feeling of safety, security and promotes stillness within.  An inner intelligence of the natural curves of the spine allows us to properly line up our chakras so that the energy can move freely.  If our posture is lazy and our muscles unable to keep us upright for long, imbalances start to develop, not only in the body, but also in the mind, leading to a stagnation of energy.

In Tadasana we learn how to change one habit for another.  This can only happen if we give ourselves permission to do so.  Years of poor standing habits cannot be eradicated overnight, for as the saying goes "old habits die hard".  Patience and compassion need to be cultivated.  What really matters is that we are on the way to heightened awareness and this alone should suffice to fill us with appreciation, gratitude and joy.

Once we enter into Tadasana, we let the breath be our guide, the breathing is easy and mindful.  As we breathe, the spine naturally elongates effortlessly away from a solid foundation.  "When you inhale, there is that energy, that strength, that comes like a wave and the body follows.  It's a relaxing feeling.  Each movement is done with the wave and with the breathing inhale, exhale - you are following the wave, and you become very supple and very elastic, and there are no difficulties" - Vanda Scaravelli.  When we inhale, we can visualize drawing the breath from the earth following its journey through our legs and torso, right up through the crown of our head.  When we exhale, we stay with the journey of our breath and we watch it as it moves down from the head through the chest and abdomen, the legs and finally the feet back down into the earth.  It is helpful to repeat this visualization several times.  At this point, it also feels wonderful on an inhalation to raise the arms over the head, reaching skywards, inner elbows lined up with the ears, shoulders soft and broad, to experience the fantastic feeling of fully opening the body in all directions to experience "length, width and depth without rigidity" (Rodney Yee) while remaining perfectly balanced, for a couple of breaths;  the arms are then lowered down on an exhalation, with the same deliberate focus.  We experience moving with the breath and with each breath comes the promise of something new, the promise of a new beginning;  each breath enables us to connect deeper within.  We learn to be sensitive as to how the breath moves the abdomen and the chest muscles as we practice diaphragmatic breathing.  It is this movement which needs to be even and equal on both sides of the body for the posture to be steady and for our heart to open like a flower.