by rupareiki@yahoo.com | Oct 22, 2017 | Health Tips, My Experiences, Self Esteem, Self Love, Yoga
My Journey to a headstand/ Sirshasan started in Dec 2015 when I was visiting my home town in India. I went with my sister to the Anti Gravity Yoga session and with use of the hammock I learned how to get inverted into headstand. It was difficult cause that was my first time ever being upside down and I was very glad that I was well supported with the hammock. I already knew that Sirshasan was the King of all poses and had a lot of benefits. But that day doing the inverted pose brought up a lot of fears I must have housed since forever.
First I’ll start with top 10 Benefits of doing the pose:
- Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
- Increases focus
- Increases blood flow to eyes
- Stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands
- Strengthens the arms, legs, and spine
- Strengthens the lungs
- Tones the abdominal organs
- Improves digestion
- Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
- Therapeutic for asthma, infertility, insomnia, and sinusitis
I had never tried headstand ever cause I was always afraid of being hurt, of my neck breaking, or my back breaking. I don’t remember doing it when I was young ever. May be I could start somewhere I thought to myself. May be I could start doing headstand with support of the wall. I started trying out the pose every weekend in the morning (first thing in the morning before I ate or drank anything). Frankly speaking even with the wall next to me I was afraid of doing the pose for quite some time. My regular practice of yoga along with increasing my upper body and core strength helped me a lot with having faith in myself and building my strength overall. I was finally able to get over the fear of breaking my neck but that again was with a strong wall next to me!
Well now that I felt stronger I had to achieve more. How do people do a headstand without support? How do they do it in the middle of the room? What kind of balance and strength do these people have? I had encountered such people when I attended a few classes at Sivananda ashram in Bahamas. I was amazed to see people from all walks of life just able to do it with ease and grace.
One of my close friend Aparna who teaches Yoga came to my rescue and taught me what to do. Her guidance helped me get to the next step. This step included trying to balance in the middle of the room on my head while getting my feet up half way. The picture below shows the progression of the headstand from one level to another along with the method to do the headstand.
She suggested I get to the half way position for about 3-4 months and not rush myself. I continued my regular work-outs while I added this practice to my routine. Some days were better than other. Some days I felt balanced mentally and it was easy to get to the half way headstand. March 2017 to August 2017 I continued to do what I was told. But now I wanted to get to the next level. I thought it would be a very easy transition. But alas, I had more fears to conquer.
Next step for me was to get over my fear of falling! Fear of falling on my back and hurting myself. This one again was a lot of mind work and I started with practicing a good way of falling. Falling with a pillow next to my head so I can roll over onto the pillow and not hurt my neck, head or my back. During the fall I was told to release the finger thread, with palms open, tuck my neck, round my back, bend my knees and roll out of it. Once I got over my fear of falling, I was able to try getting my legs straight up.
Took me a while and today 22nd October I can say I have finally gotten to that point of getting my feet straight up in a proper headstand/sirshasan. While the posture is not perfect I know now that I have gotten to a point where I am free of my fears related to this amazing pose! I am sure I will add more goals to refine this pose and hold this pose for longer times. But for now I am happy that I stayed with it and while it took long I didn’t give up.
In summary I want to say that this pose alone has helped me work through a lot of my own limitations and my own fears. It feels amazing today that my body is able to do what I set my mind to. The key to success was that I never gave up and continued to have faith that the day will come. All along I also always looked for support, motivation and teachers who I learned from. Even though it took almost 2 years the day did arrive and every single step was worth the effort and worth the struggle. I promise myself this journey will not end here, I will continue to explore a lot more difficult poses while I find some other fears, play with them and stretch my abilities. Going beyond my limitations set by me and freedom from fears is what I strive for every day!
**IMPORTANT** If you are new to Yoga I recommend you seek out a qualified instructor/teacher to teach you this pose. Learn how to do the pose appropriately and ensure you have support of the wall when you first get started. If you are suffering from low or high blood pressure you should not attempt this pose. Also consult your health care practitioner prior to trying new poses. Understand the limitations, restrictions and cautions associated with the inverted postures like sirshasan. Please assess your own personal health before trying the pose. Inverted pose in general should not be performed by women who are menstruating, as is the case with all inverted postures (where the legs are raise over the head).
by rupareiki@yahoo.com | Sep 25, 2017 | Health Tips, Love, My Experiences, Self Esteem, Self Love
During my walk on the trail today I became very present with the stream of water that was flowing all along the trail. The sound very serene, the ambiance very soothing & the water just flowing.
Flowing got me thinking. There are so many rocks along this stream and so many changes in the landscape where a dead tree trunk had fallen in the middle of the stream and the water had to flow in the middle of the two land masses, wherever it went the water stayed within the boundaries. While all the water wants to do is flow and either meet a bigger river or meet an ocean or feed into a lake, things are constantly in its way. But what does water do? It finds a way, changes its course, go over the rocks or even chisel through an entire mountain. It doesn’t matter what comes in the way water stays on its path and continues to flow until it reaches its destination. At any time water is not doubting its ability to find a way and stay true to its nature of FLOWING.
Now consider yourself in place of water and while you are flowing along this path called life, the rocks along the way are obstacles, the dead tree trunk that falls into the middle of your path are the challenges that you have to face, and the boundaries are the limits that are either set by yourself or by others in life. Sometimes these boundaries are needed to keep you in them and other times they are there so you can learn and grow beyond them. Life is always full of experiences, the good the bad, the cool fun ones and the ones we don’t want. While there are some great clear paths full of amazing views and some easy times, there are spots full of obstacles along with dead ends.
Just like the water we can keep on flowing. We can also change course, go over obstacles, create new paths or sometimes even change the entire landscape. We have the power to deal with life the way we want. Either jump over the hurdles, work through fears, come up with different ways of handling challenges, or change the limits given to you and get creative. Think beyond your boundaries and limits, think outside the box.
Whatever you decide to do, it is all fine and it is just another choice or decision that you choose to make. So be happy with your choices, be happy with yourself, live on, accept yourself and keep flowing. Don’t cling onto all that happened with one obstruction just cause it is big or a steep climb. Learn from it and move on. No matter how long or short, how difficult or easy the journey might be, make it a fun journey. Keep flowing and stay true to yourself. Be yourself and let your inner being, your source, guide you through the journey.
A reconnecting walk into the woods and just being present to the surroundings helped me reflect on something so profoundly simple “Just keep flowing- no matter what”!
by rupareiki@yahoo.com | Aug 4, 2014 | My Experiences, Recommended Books, Uncategorized
I had just reached the Atlantis – Bahamas with my family on the afternoon of 31st July. Beautiful place with white sands, blue water and clear skies and to add to that I found a wonderful Sivananda Yoga Ashram which was about 10 min walk from the hotel. I felt blessed after having experienced a yoga lesson the morning of Friday the 1st Aug. A beautiful walk along the white sands of the Paradise Beach with feet dipping into the clear blue water made it an even more blissful experience.
I was sure I would not be able to join the yoga lesson on Saturday morning due to a potential plan of visiting a different island. After a lot of struggle with making a decision of what to do on Saturday I had finally settled with the fact that I would be able to attend one more yoga lesson at the ashram from 8 to 10 am the next day. I was very excited for the opportunity that presented itself to me.
Saturday morning I was up at 6:30 hoping to see the sunrise but missed it by a few minutes and the sun disappeared behind the thick clouds. The morning was damp, wet and was showing signs of storm waiting to come. But I was sure and very certain that I would be doing yoga that morning. I only had a 10 minutes walk and I would make it there before it started pouring.
I was ready on time and reached the lobby at 7:30 ready to walk along the beach. But as soon as I stepped out in the open it started POURING. Yes it started pouring. I went back in the hotel lobby and looked up. There were no signs of the rains halting and the skies clearing up. My mind was racing with loads of questions. How long can I wait? Will I not get to the ashram on time? Am I going to miss the lesson? I don’t want to be wet. How do I get there without getting wet? I had no umbrella or poncho or knew of no other way to get there. Even in the midst of so many thoughts I was somehow sure I will be there before the class begins. I held that feeling of surety and did something different. I reached within and felt immense trust in the universe. I felt the power of being able to create my life for myself. I plunged onto carrying out one of the experiment right out of the book E-Squared by Pam Grout.
I thought about the universe as being a field of infinite possibilities and felt that I could draw whatever I wanted to me. It was almost a meditative state when I said this to the energy, to the universe.
“I am ready to go to the yoga ashram. And I really want to be a part of this practice this morning. I want to be dry when I get to the yoga lesson so I can experience the practice fully. The only way I can get there is through the beach. I believe this opportunity opened up for me yesterday because I was meant to do it. If you plan for me to be there kindly clear up for 10 min so I can reach there safely and dry. If you give me 7 minutes I will run to this place. I need the rain to stop and for you to clear up so I can reach there on time. I do respect your decision and I surrender to your wish. If I am meant to be there I will be. A clear sky for 10 minutes. I know you love me and you are looking out for me. Whatever you decide is what I will do. Thank you for listening.”
What happened next within few seconds was something totally miraculous (someone would say) but for me it was my universe showing that it utterly loves me and is right there listening to me.
The sky cleared up. Yes believe it or not the sky cleared up. No rain for next 7 min. I ran from the hotel lobby and ran as fast as I could toward the ashram along the beach. On my way the universe showed its presence in a DOUBLE rainbow!! Yes a DOUBLE rainbow!! The universe conveyed the message loud and clear that what happened was done especially just for me. It was a gift for me to cherish. And so I did. All along the run my heart was filled with gratitude and I kept saying “thank you universe, it means a lot to me that you showered your love, thank you universe for showing up today, and thank you for the double rainbow, I will make the most of my day today, I am deeply grateful for this beautiful gift this morning.”
I continued running and the moment I reached the platform where the yoga lesson was being held it poured. It poured cats and dogs. Yes it did. Our yoga teacher had a tough time keeping up with the noise from the rain while instructing us. This was also the first yoga lesson where I did a head stand (with some help from the teacher) but without any support of the wall.
Universe Showered its love on me when I surrendered and let it all go. It was a beautiful encounter with the universe. Oh and let me add that during my walk back I did get wet and enjoyed the rain. After all I was ok getting wet once the yoga practice was done. And I didn’t make that portion of my walk clear to the universe or I would have definitely gotten a clear sky for those 10 min as well.
You can check out the book E-Squared by Pam Grout. 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality. http://pamgrout.com/e-squared
These are the spiritual experiments you can prove in E-Squared:
- There is an invisible energy force or field of infinite possibilities.
- You impact the field and draw from it according to your beliefs and expectations.
- You, too, are a field of energy.
- Whatever you focus on expands.
- Your connection to the field provides accurate and unlimited guidance.
- Your thoughts and consciousness impact matter.
- Your thoughts and consciousness provide the scaffolding for your physical body.
- You are connected to everything and everyone else in the universe.
- The universe is limitless, abundant, and strangely accommodating.
With love and light
Your fellow earthling!
