My tush was in the air, my shoulders close to the floor, forearms next to my head, and I was curled into what felt like an upside down frog. "Rock here for a moment and see what it would feel like if you were going to go up into a headstand," my teacher said. My first thought was "I would break my neck."
But it was interesting to consider. See what it would feel like. I rocked again. Ok, if I didn't break my neck, what would it be like? It was hard to even imagine.
I thought back to when I was growing up and did handsprings in the park all summer and somersaults across the living room floor all winter. When did I stop regularly turning upside down? It seems that as I've grown up, I've stopped flipping over.
Is this a bad thing?
I consulted Alanna Zabel, the owner of the yoga and wellness company Aziam, Inc. who told me that, "there has always been a bit of controversy around headstands and inverted postures in yoga." She went on to explain that the yogi, Osho, believed that one should NOT invert, as he believed the reason we evolved from four legged animals into two legged humans was due to the lack of blood pooling at the base of the neck/brain when standing on two legs instead of four. He believed that over-diluting these areas killed neurons that were necessary to develop the brain’s abilities to reason, for example.
Hum.
She was quick to add that she didn't agree with this theory. "From my own experience as well as from my yoga trainings, I do believe that inverted postures increase our overall health. They increase circulation, supply needed blood flow and nutrition to the brain, stimulate our glandular systems, and clean blood vessels in the head and neck."
Sounds like a good thing.
But before I start to attempt a headstand nightly, she warned me that, "it's very important to be careful and progress slowly in these advanced postures. The cervical vertebrae and nerves are more sensitive than other areas of the spinal column." (So maybe my fear of breaking my neck wasn't so unfounded!) She added, "Always balance on the very, very crown of your head so as to maintain proper alignment with the rest of the spine."
I'm not sure that I'll work my way up to headstands or handsprings anytime soon, but maybe if I keep at yoga, the idea of moving up into an inversion will feel less like becoming an upside down frog and more like getting closer to my younger, more flexible self.
