Upside down

I’m really not keen on the upside down poses (‘inversions’ is the proper term) that we have to do at yoga. I don’t like the blood rush to my head which eventually makes me feel quite dizzy and sometimes nauseous. We do hand stands, head stands, shoulder stands, forearm stands and sometimes hand upside down from ropes. In the advanced class we seem to do quite long headstands however the teacher noticed I haven’t really been taking part the last few weeks so said I could hang upside down instead for less strain on my neck. That’s not really the problem but I took up his offer anyway. It’s actually quite relaxing and you can feel it’s good for your back but I can only do it for a minute or so, not 5 minutes like others can.

I finally asked the other day what the point of all the upside down stuff was – what’s the benefit of all the discomfort on my part. Seems it’s an ‘opposite process’ i.e. you’re always on your feet and it’s good for the soul to take an opposite view of the world now and then. And physically, with your feet above your head it forces new blood from your heart to be pumped to your brain, which is a good thing. Flushes out toxins and exercises blood vessels by forcing your blood to flow a different way.

These are good things for me, so I’ll approach it with a different feeling now, one of ‘this is good for me’ instead of dread!