“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
I have never done any inversion poses before in my practice previously as the reason are I do not know the technique well and I am AFRAID of falling down. I would have never imagined that today, I am able to do headstand. Before my 200 hr YTT in Tirisula Yoga began, I thought practicing yoga is all about flexibility, nothing to do with strength and courage but I was wrong. The day Master Paalu asked us to do headstand and it will be one of the poses that will be tested in the exam. It made me really stressful and I thought I would have never made it. However, with the explanation on the technique and other instructors’ help to lift my hip, I memorized and kept practicing at home. One month later, I am able to do headstand! The feeling is priceless like you have conquered the world. Here I found the step by step technique to be shared :
Technique
After an initial child’s pose there are eight steps to carefully follow in order to practice the headstand properly:
- Kneel down and grab your elbows with your hands.
- Keep the elbows where they are and interlock the fingers in front of you. Elbows and hands now form an equilateral triangle.
- Place the very top of your head on the floor with the back of your head resting against the fingers.
- Straighten the knees, raise your hips, your body now resembling an inverted V. The weight should be about equally distributed between your head/arms and the feet.
- Keeping your knees straight as much as possible, walk with little steps, bringing your feet as close as possible to your head. This will shift the weight from the feet onto the head/arms. Keep your back as straight as possible to prevent your neck from arching.
- Bend the knees keeping them close to the chest and your feet close to your buttocks. Shift the hips to keep your balance.
- Keep your knees bent and point them to sky.
- Now and only now straighten your legs. Keep your feet relaxed. Make sure that the head is supporting no more than 10% of your body weight, the rest being applied on the elbows. At first hold it for 5 seconds. Increase gradually to 10 to 15 minutes.
Reference : http://yoga108.org/pages/show/65-yoga-headstand-shirshasana
My advice for first-timer doing headstand is keep practicing and have someone help you. Once you are able to do headstand without the wall by yourself, try to do it in the middle of the room. If you are afraid of falling down will break your bone, it won’t! You can put pillow around you to conquer your fear. At least try to fall down once and you will know it is not the end of the world. You are still alive without breaking any bone. Anyway this is my method to conquer my fear and now I am really in love with doing this pose so much.
Namaste
Jessica Novia (200 hr YTT Weekend Class Aug ‘15)
