Evolution: The Handstand Challenge

"But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever
So I think I'll be Six now for ever and ever."
- Now We Are Six, A.A. Milne

I was green with envy when DT said he had managed an unassisted headstand the other day: "First time since I was 6 or so...Felt like a kid". I've been wanting to do an unassisted inversion (headstand, tripod headstand, handstand, whatever...) since I started yoga, but just not there yet. After one class with Patrick where we were practising the different stages of a headstand, I actually had a dream where I kept trying, and repeatedly failing, to do a handstand. I woke up feeling like Sisyphus, except Sisyphus would actually get to roll his rock all the way up the hill before having it roll back down; I never managed a handstand, even in my dream (I don't even want to think about what Freud would have to say about all this!). It was such an annoying feeling, especially knowing that, even in my dream, the one thing that kept me from doing the handstand was fear -- visions of myself landing on my head and breaking my neck would race through my mind just as I'm about to kick my legs up. I'd love to have that fearlessness of a 6-year-old again.

So yesterday, to help me overcome my fear, I dragged LP, MP & PW to the Evolution: Asia Yoga Conference (none of us actually ever imagined ourselves attending a yoga conference!) to take the "Inversions Demystified" class taught by Jason Nemer and Jenny Sauer-Klein, founders of Acroyoga. When we arrived, we were all just a tad bit intimidated. Most of the people in the class seemed like such serious yogis, many having attended classes since the start of the conference on Friday. Even MP & PW, who could do handstands, were looking a bit weary.

In the end, I didn't quite manage to do a completely unassisted handstand. I used the wall to get my legs up, but there was a split-second when I managed to hold the handstand on my own and that already got me on a thrilling high. I never imagined myself attending a yoga conference full of serious yogis, but there we all were, having such fun. There was one particularly entertaining moment watching MP & PW execute an exercise with one of them in downward dog and the other attempting a handstand off the back of the one in downward dog (I leave it to the reader's imagination to work out the technicalities). LP, who was least enthusiastic to begin with, actually walked out of the 2-hour class saying we should attend next year's conference and sign up for more classes! I walked out of the class with the inspiring realisation that I wasn't going to break my neck doing a handstand. So I'll just keep trying. And one of these days, it will just happen and I might just be able to be 6 for ever and ever.