I just got home from an amazing yoga class taught by Shannon Elliot and I'm on a bit of a high. It’s the inversions that do it to me. Once my biggest fear in yoga, inversions are now what excite me most in class. An inversion is a pose in which up is down, or down is up. What comes to mind for most is probably head stand or hand stand. In these poses your completely upside down. I can’t get enough of them. There is something so addicting for me about being upside down. The reverse of blood flow, the shift of weight from my feet to my hands or forearms, the different perspective … I love it all. When I come into handstand for example, I feel brave and strong. We could probably all benefit from allowing ourselves to feel these things more often. When I’m up in the pose I’m working hard, but there is an element of peace and calm as well. When I come down I feel proud that I have just accomplished something difficult and I didn’t give up. I also am able to feel accepting of myself and of my limits. I know when to push and when to back off. I know when to go up and when it just doesn’t feel right. Knowing when to stop is a practice all in itself. Putting myself in the position to recognize those things allows me to know myself just a little bit more.
To a beginner yogi or even a more seasoned one, inversions can be daunting. Our bodies are naturally upright so it’s understandable that we may have a little bit of anxiety when it comes to turning ourselves upside down. Not only does our mind object, but our bodies may as well, fighting us when we try to invert.
Inversions take time and practice. Not only do we need to build up the strength in our bodies to handle them, but we need to cultivate the open mindedness and the willingness to try them, too. A lot of times we talk ourselves out of something before we even try, and there is no shortage of that on the yoga mat. We may tell ourselves we don’t have the skill or the strength and we defeat our selves without giving it a shot. We fail before we even try to succeed. My own personal issue with inversions used to be my concern for what others thought. I was afraid to try a pose that the rest of the class was doing because I cared too much about what they thought of me. It took a lot of time for me to be comfortable with the idea of putting myself out there when others might judge me but once I was willing to try I found that most people are way too concerned with their own pose to even notice what I was doing! Once I was able to stop caring what everyone else in the room thought of me, I was free. Free to make mistakes, free to fall out of the pose, free to stop when I had to. But I was also able to learn from my mistakes, cultivate strength and balance and keep on going. It doesn’t happen over night of course… you don’t just wake up one day and decide your going to do a one-handed hand stand (haven’t mastered this one yet…!) It takes time, it takes patience and it takes an open mind. I think it is important to recognize that the person on the mat next to you who comes up in a handstand without the support of the wall had to start somewhere, too. The person in front of you who has held their crow pose for 10 breaths now hasn’t always been able to do that. We all start at the very same place and from there we take it at our own pace in our own time.
There is no shortage of reasons to give inversions a try. From a physical perspective, they improve the circulation of blood and other internal fluids which help to cleanse and detoxify the body, they help to strengthen our muscles, they can help to relieve back pain caused by compression in the vertebrae, and they can improve posture. In addition, inversions help us recognize that we can conquer our fears and take on challenges. They shift our perspective and give us a new way to look at the world. As one of my teachers puts it, turning ourselves upside down voluntarily makes it easier for us to accept when our world gets turned upside down. Inversions can also help with mental clarity. When we invert there is an increase of blood flow to the head, supplying the brain with lots of fresh oxygen which can increase levels of concentration and mental sharpness.
Tonight’s class full of inversions was just what I needed and I can’t wait to get some more! For anyone interested in joining me I’m attending an awesome three hour inversion workshop with Erin Klemme at P.S. 108 in Bedminster this Sunday from 1-4! See their website for more details!
Be on the look out for my next post: Where to start when you’re new to inversions!
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