Hand to Toe

Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana--literally, "extended hand to the big toe pose"--is a great way for practitioners of all levels to explore "the perfection of imperfection." This deceptively straightforward posture requires a challenging combination of balance, strength, and flexibility. If you're a beginner, just getting into a rough approximation of the pose can be daunting. If you're a continuing student, you'll find that as soon as you've mastered one form of the pose, another more demanding variation awaits you.

To begin your practice, stand with your weight evenly balanced on both feet and the crown of your head floating toward the ceiling. (If you think your balance might be shaky, you may want to stand with your left shoulder a foot or so from a wall, so you can reach out and steady yourself with your left hand if necessary.) [Figure 1] Take a moment to explore your balance in this simple standing pose. Is your weight evenly distributed between the right and left foot? Between the ball of the foot and the heel? Spread the toes and actively draw the kneecaps upward to firm the legs.

On an exhalation, keeping the spine long, bend the right knee toward your chest and hook the right big toe with the first two fingers of your right hand. Rest the left hand on your left hip and balance on one leg for five to 10 long breaths. [Figure 2] Going this far might be challenge enough! Rest your eyes softly but steadily on a single point to help establish and maintain your balance.
If you want to go further, slowly begin to straighten the right leg, keeping hold of the big toe with your fingers. [Figure 3] Let the pose unfold from your core, unfurling your leg like a flower blossoming out of your belly. Keep the left leg strong and straight. Resist the impulse to hunch forward over the lifted leg. Instead, keep the spine reaching toward the sky. Continue to drop the right hip down so the hips remain square and level with each other.

Stay in this pose for five more breaths. Let your brain relax. Tensing your muscles, holding your breath, and tightening your jaw and belly will only make things more difficult.

For Beginners: Balasana

More than a rest stop, Child's Pose requires you to surrender to gravity and a state of nondoing.

By Peter Sterios

In his classic book Mastery, American aikido expert George Leonard details the beginner's approach on the journey to mastery: Start with something simple. Try touching your forehead with your hand. Ah, that's easy, automatic. Nothing to it. But there was a time when you were as far removed from the mastery of that simple skill as someone who doesn't play piano is from playing a Beethoven sonata.

For most students, this simple example is analogous to how you begin a yoga practice. If you're lucky, it's in an introductory class in a room full of similarly inexperienced students. The teacher's first instruction sounds like a foreign language, and although you consider yourself relatively healthy and intelligent, dyslexia attacks: You forget where the left hand is, or the right foot, and look around the room, suddenly frightfully aware of your limited faculties of perception.

Having taught an "Intro to Yoga" class for years, I know this is a familiar scenario. So familiar, in fact, that I have simplified the initial instructions I give in class to vocabulary and movements that are recognizable to most beginners. But even after you are not a beginner anymore, going back to basics—doing less, but with more awareness—allows you to find the essence of the most fundamental poses and touch "beginner's mind."