I have been passionate about yoga for the past few years and I finally learned to headstand only two months ago. yipee One pose I never thought myself capable of holding because of how much it scared me, because of how much strength it requires and because of how unconventional it is. I remember my yoga teacher flawlessly kicking her legs straight up into the air making it look as easy as child pause. I also remember that the mere thought of kicking my legs higher than my hips while in dolphin pause scared the hell out of me. Truth is I never kicked with intention to reach above. I just shyly kicked with a “here goes nothing” mentality. As a result, I didn’t reach above.

This was reflective of many instances in my life, when I didn’t try hard enough with actual intention to reach a goal. I just elected to try until I gave up. But one day, I kicked and I let my yoga teacher hold my legs above my torso, until she wasn’t holding anymore. That day I realized that being upside down was possible for me, if I let go of the thought that it was impossible, if I let go of my mind and trusted my body and went for it. So I do now and I can’t stop kicking up. I let that victory teach me through life hurdles remembering that sometimes you just have to go for it, be ok with needing help to get there and trust that eventually you will be able to hold your own up or upside down – whatever makes your inner-self flip.

In the words of Krishna Pattabhi Jois, “Body is not stiff. Mind is stiff.”

Namaste.