Notes:
Develop the playful attitude of a child.  You will overcome your fear of falling by practicing falling, by realizing that there is nothing to fear.  Accept your body where it is now, be patient with yourself and keep on trying; let go of all expectations.  Everything happens when we stop working so hard.

If your mind is busy, or you find it difficult to focus on a still point, you will find it very hard to balance.  A certain amount of swaying when you are in the pose is fine, trees sway, but only up to a point before they get uprooted.  Let the in-breath come easily.

When in the pose, visualize yourself as a tree and take on its physical attributes.  Imagine that you are growing roots from the centre of your standing foot right through to the centre of the earth and feel how these roots anchor you down, feel that you are forming a solid connection to the ground.  It is thanks to its far-reaching downward network of roots which cannot be seen from above ground that the tree can find its stability and is able to grow upwards towards the sky.  Likewise, while in Tree pose, we need to feel that our lower body (below the waist) is being pulled downwards as our upper body (above the waist) lengthens skywards.  This happens on an exhalation. 

Trees are associated with many symbols.  Here are a few that you may wish to focus on whilst in the pose to enhance your experience of it:

Trees teach us that we need to find balance between strength and flexibility, between effort and surrender.   It teaches us to stay strong whatever life throws at us and to stay focused.

Modifications & Props

Except in the case of medical conditions, most of us take the way we stand for granted.  All the postural imperfections we have acquired throughout the years since we learned to walk will manifest even more as we stand on one leg.  It is difficult to balance in the beginning. We need to be able to shift our centre of gravity towards one leg as opposed to two.  We must also have developed enough strength in our ankles and legs to allow us to stay in the pose.  Beginners often use the wall when learning Tree pose.  They press their back against the wall – which helps them to keep it straight; alternatively they position themselves about one foot away from the wall, so that when they bend their left knee to place their foot against their right inner thigh, the knee touches the wall and makes balancing easier.

It is best to avoid using the hand to prop ourselves up against the wall as this will make us lean towards it involuntarily.

Preparatory Poses

Subsequent Poses

Beginners’ Tip

It is preferable to work on bare skin or wear cotton trousers/shorts as the sole of the bent leg tends to slip down on synthetic fabric.  If the foot keeps on slipping, a belt can be wrapped around the ankle to hold it up.
Bringing the foot high against the opposite inner thigh often causes an overarching of the lower back if the hips or adductors are tight.  To avoid this, we need to place our foot lower on the standing leg; we can also place it against the ankle, with the toes resting on the floor.  In tree as in all asanas, the integrity of the spine must always be respected.  We must never lose the correct alignment of the pose for what we perceive to be a more advanced pose.
To develop an awareness of the midline of the body, we can practice standing in Tadasana with a yoga block between our upper thighs and squeezing it.  As we engage our inner leg muscles to hold the block, we should try to lengthen our inner legs all the way down to our inner feet.  The tendency is to put more weight on the outside edge of the feet, so we need to make sure that we press the big toes a little bit more than usual so that the weight feels more equally balanced between the four corners of the feet.  We need to keep lifting the inner arch of the standing foot by lifting the inner ankle bone.  As we press our standing foot onto the floor we should become aware of the rebounding action through the midline of the body and feel that our head is extending skywards.  We should focus on bringing the navel towards the spine and up as we tuck the tailbone under and keep the lower ribs soft.