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).
Great – Keep pushing your limits.
One posture can have so many more meanings!
Thank you Sis! You are my inspiration !! looking forward to some more challenges.