Yoga Headstand Fun Times

Last month Krista and I posed for this photo.

Sorry did I say posed?

What I should have said was Kevin held our feet and posed us, then ran out of the frame while the camera snapped rapid fire shots and we desperately tried to hold it for a second or two.

Thank goodness for the ability to crop Kevin out of photos.

At the time I was just getting back into yoga, practicing pretty close to daily, but I would have said proper headstands weren't anywhere in my near future. I should also point out that headstand and hand stands even have were never in my past either. I was always the kid who kicked up into a hand stand and flipped all the way down onto my back. Fun as a kid playing on the lawn, terrifying as an adult.


Fast forward a week, to a community yoga class in Vancouver with Blissology's Eoin Finn, and he says ok everyone hand stands. So naturally I sit back into child's pose. Because you know, I'm terrified.

Well that wasn't an option with Eoin, and he came right over and assisted me right up into my first handstand, and held me there waaaay longer than I wanted. But importantly, long enough for me to get a sense of what it felt like through the core, shoulders and arms to support you body weight upside down.

More importantly though, he held me up there long enough to get past the fear, and I came home determined to get inversions (well more inversions than just shoulder stand) into my practice.

If you want to learn anything in yoga, there are two ways to do it, in class and online with Kino MacGregor, so I watched her videos on headstands and practiced hard in my Ashtanga classes.

Now I am strong enough to lift up into headstands on my mat in class, unsupported by the wall! (Although when I practice at home I still like to work on them about a foot away from the wall, just in case.)

Next on the yoga bucket list will be developing the core strength to lift up straight legged into the pose. So practice, practice, practice.