Urdhva Dhanurasana, Wheel Pose, Backward Bend.
Urdhva Dhanurasana. This Asana has always intrigued me, even enticed me. Those who know me through yoga know that yoga doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m 46yrs old (young) slightly overweight and not really strong or flexible. I’ve been told that those who don’t have a natural yoga body do often make the best teachers. So there’s hope for me yet. But even though I may not have the strength and flexibility I wish, I do have self trust and an intuitive sense of myself.
Like I said earlier I have alway been intrigued with Urdhva Dhanurasana. I remember when I first started yoga I went to a backbend workshop and at that stage I couldn’t even do a backbend. But for some reason I felt inclined to go. I’d like to say I got a lot out of the class and that it sent me on my path of yoga, but it didn’t; although my intuition was right the rest of me wasn’t there yet. So time passed and many yoga classes and self practice went by as well as many times when yoga wasn’t a part of my life. Now many years later and with a completely different out-look on life I find myself at Tirisula Yoga doing a 200hr yoga teacher training course and still Urdva Dhanurasana intrigues me. Here I am now doing a little research into it and what do I find?
Urdhva Dhanurasana is also called the Wheel Pose or Chakrasana. It opens the heart (which I have always known) with me being a healer working with chakras it’s not surprising it’s called Chakrasana, it is said to ignite all seven chakras while shining your heart to the world; it improves your determination can sooth a broken heart and open you up to new love; it works all major muscle groups, lowers blood pressure and improves blood circulation.
To me Urdhva Dhanurasana is about trusting my heart and allowing myself to be vulnerable, it’s about giving myself a stable foundation whilst opening my heart to the world. Keeping Urdhva Dhanurasana in my practice not only in the physically but mentally and spiritually as well isn’t easy but I know if I keep trying with determination I will generate my world from the heart, this world will be full of love and the world as a whole will be a slightly better place and I may just loose some of those love handles..
Namaste David G
