I learned about this asana for curing cervical spondylosis a couple of years ago. It is a modified form of headstand where the forehead touches the floor instead of the top of the head.
I've resumed practise of this asana last week, still near a wall for support in case I lose my balance. I would spend plenty of time in the preparatory stages, waiting a long time for my body to align before proceeding to the final pose. There were days when I just did the preparatory pose and my own modification of it, a mutation of the downward-facing dog.
Did I learn yoga from a teacher?
Nope, just from a book. But I did get a chance later to learn proper yogic breathing from an ayurvedic doctor, who also taught me therapeutic yoga exercises. As for the headstand, I just tried it on my own.
A couple of days ago, I met a man who has been practising Iyengar yoga from a book, also without a teacher. He asked me to show him how I do the headstand and showed me how he does it.
Golly wow, how smooth his movement was! He didn't kick one leg up followed by the other leg as I did it but walked closer to his head till his hips were arched and aligned with his torso before smoothly lifting his feet off the ground simultaneously. Beautiful! He got out of the pose in the same manner -- smoothly and with both feet touching the floor at the same time.
Since then I don't spend time dilly-dallying at the preparatory pose of sirsasana, but smoothly and confidently move into the final pose, just like my "guru" showed me.
I've resumed practise of this asana last week, still near a wall for support in case I lose my balance. I would spend plenty of time in the preparatory stages, waiting a long time for my body to align before proceeding to the final pose. There were days when I just did the preparatory pose and my own modification of it, a mutation of the downward-facing dog.
Did I learn yoga from a teacher?
Nope, just from a book. But I did get a chance later to learn proper yogic breathing from an ayurvedic doctor, who also taught me therapeutic yoga exercises. As for the headstand, I just tried it on my own.
A couple of days ago, I met a man who has been practising Iyengar yoga from a book, also without a teacher. He asked me to show him how I do the headstand and showed me how he does it.
Golly wow, how smooth his movement was! He didn't kick one leg up followed by the other leg as I did it but walked closer to his head till his hips were arched and aligned with his torso before smoothly lifting his feet off the ground simultaneously. Beautiful! He got out of the pose in the same manner -- smoothly and with both feet touching the floor at the same time.
Since then I don't spend time dilly-dallying at the preparatory pose of sirsasana, but smoothly and confidently move into the final pose, just like my "guru" showed me.
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