Happy stability

In his celebrated poem, Happy Insensibility, John Keats is inspired by a tree whose inability to remember the past helps it to power through a cold winter and to retain its ingrained capability to sprout new leaves and blossom into a lush green tree. The tree is not capable of remembering its past accomplishments of being full of leaves, which have been lost in the cold winter. All that it does is make itself capable of enduring and surviving through the ongoing winter and at the right time, when spring comes, it breaks through with its inherent capability of becoming a green tree again.

In the yogic pose of Vrikshasan, Tree Pose, we stand on one leg with another leg bent and resting on the thigh. We then fold our hands and raise them high above our head. The pose builds our balance, stability and strength. Practitioners of the Tree pose would know that this balance and stability is directly proportional to the stability of thoughts while doing the pose. If you practise the pose along with other people, and your mind tells you to do this pose better or longer than others, then you will lose balance. If there are thoughts cluttering your mind, you will lose stability. That is why this pose is more difficult with eyes closed than with eyes open. A calm, quiet and self-focused mind are preconditions to achieving a steady Tree Pose.

Through trees, nature teaches us to forget the past, deal with the present and strive for future. Through the Tree Pose, we learn to be calm, stable, balanced and strong.