Handstand anyone??

There is an abundance of yoga 'selfies' involving the handstand.  It has been drip feeding into my consciousness for a while now and I have always been a bit of a handstander over the years but not a very accomplished one (sometimes during my teens and twenties they were wine induced handstands - not very sensible!) Weirdly I mainly 'handstand' in the Summer, just as I did when I was a child.  Simply because we spent so much time outdoors and it seemed natural to try and stand on my hands, knowing there was a soft grassy blanket beneath me when I inevitably fell down!!  I suppose you could say I have been a 'fair weather hand-stander'.

There seems to be an obsession with handstands on social media and at the risk of climbing on the bandwagon of handstands, I have been doing some Winter handstands indoors, mainly with the safety net of a wall behind me.  But as usual the nagging thought in my mind is 'why are you doing it?  Is it because you have seen so many yogis and yoginis flipping up in the air and showing their own practice? Is it your ego rearing it's head yet again - taunting you to practice?'  But the other part of me says 'No, I just feel great upside down, yes it's pretty tiring and seems to expend an amazing amount of energy but it gives me a feeling of strength both physically and emotionally'

There is also another feeling of flipping everything upside down, so when negative thoughts creep in a few kicks up to the wall and I have soon got myself out of my head and into my body.  There is something liberating and freeing about doing it - maybe it's because it reminds me of being a kid again.  I was never any good at team games and competitive stuff, I just didn't care enough about winning to really try - but I always loved standing on my hands and on my head and doing cartwheels.  It's probably just a way to play and have fun - so maybe I'm not really doing 'yoga' when I am doing it, but that is a discussion for another day.......I think I'll stick with it as long as I am having fun and try not to analyse my reasons for doing it!!

The first photo is me aged about 9 years and the second photo is about 30 years later!

 

 

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