If the hips or lower back feel stiff, tight or painful in postures, the chances are that you habitually support yourself with a holding pattern of the psoas and/or illiopsoas muscles, and if you do that in an unbalanced way (if you are right- or left-footed), it leads to scoliotic holding patterns to compensate.
Knowing this does nothing to help you, because trying to 'open' or 'stretch' these muscles will simply cause them to resist your efforts. The problem is that they are being given the job of supporting you whatever you are doing (including trying to stretch them).
The solution is simple - take the job of support away from them by giving yourself other ways of supporting yourself. This will lead to an intense strengthening of muscles you probably don't even know you have (because they are currently not needed), but the good news is that this 'other way' can become effortless, because the muscles I am talking about are naturally take part in both support and breathing (IF you are not holding yourself up with the hips and spine).
The first part will give you the direct experience of what it actually feels like to let go of the Psoas family of muscles, and what follows will develop the support you need to replace it - support that relates to the breath and the ground beneath you....
Enjoy! Tap the like button for me and share it wherever you like. The full version with deeper exploration and appliction to standing is available for all premium members on the the 'Yoga Solutions' pages (linked in the members area)