If you arrive on the mat with an excess of either strength or flexibility, and consistently work from that place of familiarity, take this opportunity to explore and engage with its opposite. Whether you see yourself as someone who has more strength than flexibility, or the other way around, you’ll benefit when you explore actions that do not come naturally to you and when you avoid acting on what comes easiest to you. Throughout this practice, you’ll explore a series of primary actions that will help you cultivate a balance of strength and openness, stability and mobility, and perhaps most important, challenge and comfort. Patanjali explains in Yoga Sutra II.48 that once the balance between opposites is achieved, “thereafter one is undisturbed by the dualities.” This is potent stuff, whether applied on the mat or off, suggesting that when you allow opposites to coexist, rather than let one or the other end of the spectrum dominate, the ultimate reward is the composure and equanimity that bring so many people to yoga in the first place. Learning to do that requires the dual qualities of sthira (steadiness) and sukha (ease). In this gorgeous flower of a pose, the challenge is to balance the rooted strength of your standing leg with a blossoming openness in your torso and extended leg.

Grace and equanimity are both the requisite components and the just rewards of learning to fly in the aptly named Bird of Paradise. Get full access to Outside Learn, our online education hub featuring in-depth yoga, fitness, & nutrition courses, when you

Look over the shoulder action pose