The most frightening thought when I signed up for the course was :getting back into headstand!
As I missed the first day of our course while I was traveling it came with no surprise that after only 2 days at Tirisula the most frightening words were easily spoken out by Hui Yan: Lets get into the headstand now!!! The only thought that crossed my mind was – no escape you have to face it!! Looking at all my colleagues I was first a little intimidated that I am in the total minority not being able to push my legs above my head! Well instructed, I tried my first little attempts to get into the upside down position…. And after a short while I got my legs up the wall!! The only thing that I didn’t realize that very moment was that my entire weight was lying on my head, which caused a terrible migraine only a few hours later… Anyway, this was Thursday and there was no way to let us go into the weekend without another session on Friday. I learnt my lesson the hard way the day before and tried to shift my weight from the head to my shoulders and into my core! It felt better and I got my legs up the wall– hopes were high that I could get into the weekend without a headache! My goal over the weekend was to ‘perfect’ the shoulder and core movements: so I showed off with my kids and they were really impressed by my attempts to get the feet up the wall. I had a little ‘downer’ when they showed me how easy and ‘light’ it could be. But I told myself, I will NOT give up as this particular pose was the one that I was most frightened of. During the 2nd week we finished nearly every lesson with a HEADSTAND and by Friday I was able to lift my legs into a half headstand without touching the wall! Paalu then did the rest: he nicely ‘forced’ me into the headstand and firmly patted my thighs, instructed me of not shaking in the trapezius and to tuck in my core muscles to make sure that I wont lean backwards. I managed pretty well and my lovely colleagues even applauded, so I was highly motivated to keep on practicing over the weekend.
Sunday, September 14th will go into my personal record book and our dog Charlie was the only witness when I did it!! Even before I got ready to get my legs up, I somehow knew I will be able to do it. To make sure that it was not only a ‘one off’, I did it another 3 times and held my legs up for at least 20 breaths!!
The recipe to my personal success was to know how to engage the right muscles, to get to know my body and to trust myself – never give up!
Chris (200hrs September ’14)
