Sirsasana

Sirsana is symbolic of my TTC journey, and thus the asana of choice for my post.
I came to the TTC not even knowing what the dolphin pose was, let alone having attempted a headstand. Naturally, I struggled to even kick my legs up to the wall on my first attempt. It is with gratitude that I share my progress in this pose, after several classmates on different occasions generously came to me with advice on the pose based on their observations and personal experience.
Getting into the Asana
Stage 1 — Walking your legs to the shoulders
Heaven knows I’ve tried and worried about all that pressure on my head and wondering if I’d crush my skull, until a classmate told me that once you have your legs up, the placement of the weight feels completely different — and she was right.
I walked my legs to my shoulders bravely until my legs felt light, and I lifted them off to the wall.
Stage 2 — Practise hugging your legs to your chest
After I got a feel of how it’s like to balance on my head, another classmate told me to really place the weight on my shoulders and forearms and balance with my legs folded against my chest.
This gave me a really good foundation to work on.
Stage 3 — Lifting one leg before the other
It was a challenge trying to lift both legs up to the air from the bent position, and I was encouraged to straighten one leg before the other. The balance was a lot easier to find this way.
Stage 4 — Pushing through the shoulders and arms
I had been relying on balance to go up for some time, and to do the pose better, I will have to continue building my upper body strength in order to push through the pose and balance decently.
Benefits of the Asana

  1. Stimulates the Sahasrara Chakra
  2. Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
  3. Stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands
  4. Strengthens the arms, legs and spine
  5. Strengthens the lungs
  6. Tones the abdominal organs
  7. Improves digestion
  8. Helps relieve symptoms of menopause
  9. Therapeutic for asthma, infertility, insomnia and sinusitis

Contraindications of the Asana

  1. Back injury
  2. Headache
  3. Heart condition
  4. High blood pressure
  5. Menstruation
  6. Neck injury
  7. Low blood pressure: Don’t start practice with this pose
  8. Pregnancy: Don’t start learning this asana during pregnancy

 
Jo