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How to - Breathe in Mountain Pose
I'm a big fan of Mountain Pose. When practised at the start of a class, it becomes the anchor for the entire standing sequence. If your weight is skewed—favouring one leg over the other—you’ll unknowingly carry that imbalance throughout the sequence. But if you take the time to find your center, to feel grounded and balanced, the entire standing sequence feels more harmonious, more integrated.
This idea isn’t limited to yoga. When I teach a client to lift—whether it’s a barbell, kettlebell, or anything else—we always start by grounding. Feet apart, standing still for a moment, they take time to sense the floor beneath them and find a balanced stance. Equal weight distribution—forward, back, left, and right—is essential. From this position of balance, they are biomechanically optimized to generate force. Muscles work together in harmony, not in competition, and the lift becomes smoother and safer.
Mountain Pose, for me, sets the stage biomechanically. But what about physiologically? How does your breath influence your standing poses? If your breathing is erratic, your body feels chaotic; tension may creep into places that should be soft. If you’ve had a stressful day and find yourself mouth-breathing, how does that affect your Mountain? How does it affect the flow of energy through your standing sequence?
Let me offer a Zen story to illustrate:
A monk once asked his teacher, “Master, what is the most important thing in practice?”The master replied, “Standing properly.”Confused, the monk asked, “And after that?”The master said, “Walking properly.”“And after that?”“Standing properly again.”
The monk pressed further, “Why is standing so important?”The master smiled and said, “Because when you stand with awareness, everything else aligns.”
Mountain Pose is not just standing; it’s standing with awareness. It’s finding alignment—physically, mentally, and energetically. It’s the foundation from which all else flows. If the foundation is shaky, the entire sequence wobbles. But when you ground yourself, breathe with awareness, and balance your weight, you create stability not just for your poses but for your mind and body.
The most important part of Mountain Pose? Breathe of course. And Lighten up.
Zahir Akram - Eternal Seeker
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