I Found Headstand By Finally Believing In Myself!

I just did my first tripod headstand!! I'm absolutely ecstatic! Some of my students and friends challenged me on my birthday (almost exactly one month ago) to do a headstand. I accepted the challenge, giving July 1st as my deadline, though not really believing it was going to happen by then (if ever). I accepted the challenge one month ago, but it has taken a lot to get me upside down to where I found myself today.

Headstand has long been one of those poses I just don't do. It's not for me; it's just not something I will ever be able to do, I said to myself over and over again. So lo and behold, I was never able to do headstand. "Whether you think you can or think you can't, either way you are right," Henry Ford said, as Hanna brought to our attention in her arm balancing workshop at the studio today. For so long I told myself headstand was not possible for me, just like I tell myself I am not a morning person or I'm not a good cook.

While I really did have the core strength to do this pose (if you've ever taken a power vinyasa class, you know your core gets STRONG), my mind was getting in my way. I had to change my thinking if I was to overcome this challenge, and time was ticking... So I started saying affirmations to myself as I was running each morning: I am a headstander, I am a headstander; I can do headstand now, I can do headstand NOW; and so on. And before bed each night I would watch YouTube videos of yogis doing headstand so that I was processing this positive info of what I wanted to create in my practice all night long subconsciously.

Then in class today I felt a glimmer of power, a tiny glimmer of my knees reaching up off my triceps. While I did not find headstand right there, the new place I felt in my body had unlocked hope - and passion! - in me. When I got home I gave it another couple tries... and the third time I went up and held it for over ten seconds! It was so exciting I have done it at least three more times since then!

Now, our thoughts can't magically bring us into new yoga poses or turn us into good cooks, but we have to start with believing in ourselves and truly knowing that it might possible for us some day. Even when I started teaching yoga I would drive the entire 20 minutes to the studio saying, "I am a yoga teacher. I am a yoga teacher" to myself over and over again to build up my confidence. And while I may never be a "good cook," if I change my thinking I can at least give it a try and be open to what is possible for me.

Whether you think you can or think you can't, either way you are right. What a way to live life!