Upside Down

When I was twenty-five, I taught myself to do headstand in my own living room like this:

Place top of head on floor
Make a triangle of forearms and elbows, cradling back of head.
Kick one leg up as hard as possible. Second leg follows
Slam over onto your back groaning
Repeat.

Why it never occurred to me to practice against a wall, I can’t say, but eventually I learned that if I kicked less hard my legs would balance in an ungainly ‘V.’ From there it was pretty easy to learn to straighten out and I haven’t fallen out of headstand from then till now.

What’s the point? Well, Anusara yoga places an emphasis on going up-side down. It sends blood rushing places (like thyroids) that don’t normally get a lot of attention. It’s both empowering and scary, and helps teach us hard things can be worthwhile.

The Anusara inversion of choice is usually handstand–long on scary and empowering, short on potential neck injury and lawsuits. I cursed this asana (secretly, with a smile on my face) for many months before being reliably able to kick up against the wall. And then I sort of loved it. But  age, weight & increasingly arthritic hands have been advising me to drop this pose.

So I promised myself I’d do headstand and shoulder stand every day. I love these poses. Iyengar called them the “mother and father” of yoga (or something close). And 1-2 minutes in each easily fits my requirement of “one thing” under the PLAN.

I’ve been on the PLAN a week. I’ve done headstand and shoulder stand once. I’d like to up that, but there are just times you don’t feel like dealing with mom and dad, so here’s alternative for those who’d like to try an inversion. It’s got the highly technical name of “legs up the wall” and if you doubt the benefit, try it for 5 min and feel the blood pound in your chest and throat! And then tick off one thing.

I like to put on headphones and listen to my favorite relaxing music by Shantala for this pose, because it gives me the very un-yogic satisfaction of feeling like I”m multi-tasking.

Note: I am not a yoga instructor or affiliated with the Anusara style of yoga in any way.

Legs up the Wall:

(optional) Take a large towel or Mexican-style blanket, fold it  to give a little padding under your butt, and place it against a wall.
Turn on one side and scoot your butt up to the wall on top of the blanket.
Roll onto your back taking your feet up the wall.
Lie back, relax, enjoy.

Namaste!