Finding Courage and Joy in the Same Breath

Happy Valentine’s day to all! February 14 is reserved for the celebration of love and relationship. It also is a day to recognize that many additional emotions are associated with love. Love is sandwiched between courage and joy. It takes courage to love another. Opening one’s heart to love another and enter a committed, intimate relationship makes both people vulnerable. Entering a loving relationship opens one up to the potential for rejection, pain, and loss. One does need courage to make the leap with all this at stake.

Oh, but once one does commit, the resulting joy that extends from the loving relationship is phenomenal! Partnership, support, acceptance, and warm fuzzy feelings all are joys that extend from loving another. A loving partner is a number-one fan and who doesn’t find joy in having a number-one fan? The support that a loving relationship provides may even generate more courage. The rewards are well worth the risk. If they weren’t then we wouldn’t have a day on the calendar devoted for this joyful emotion.

In celebration of Valentine’s day this week, I’m honoring courage and joy by practicing adho mukha vrksasana (handstand).  It takes courage to go upside down, supporting one’s weight on the hands. Some of my students haven’t experienced this sensation in decades. But we will work up to the pose, starting with an accepting, loving environment. We will begin by finding courage from our breath and arm strength. We will begin with breath of fire and poses that approximate adho mukha vrksasana, further developing courage and love for our bodies. Some students will find themselves in the full expression of the pose and some may even hold the pose for several breaths. Other students will use props and modifications to find their own expressions of the pose. But everyone will develop courage to take himself/herself upside down, even a little bit, and in that pose will find exhilaration and joy.  

Yes, it takes courage to come into adho mukha vrksasana, just as it takes courage to love another, but the resulting joy of both experiences is worth it!

Celebrating Joy

Winter is here. It is cold. What affects me more is that it is dark and I am more isolated from my community because of it. Winter solstice marks the day of the year with least sunlight. But I chose to celebrate joyfully. It may be the first full day of winter, but looking at the “bright side” days will only get lighter from here! Winter solstice celebrations intend to honor the return of the sun’s light. Traditions dating thousands of years have been incorporated into contemporary spiritual and religious practices to honor the lengthening of daylight. These celebrations have a serendipitous effect of countering winter blues and bringing people together in community.

Besides the year-end parties I’ve attended, I’ve found joy this week in being upside down. What better reason is there to practice adho mukha vrksasana (handstand) than to have fun?! Being upside down offers a perspective that is novel and exciting relative to the feet on the ground, head in the air, day-to-day stance. It increases heart rate and blood pressure in part because of the physiology of the action but also because of this novel excitement. Most people haven’t supported their weight entirely through their hands with their feet in the air since they were 8 years old and those are usually happy memories.

Handstand variations can be accessible to anyone. After preparing the body with a few rounds of surya namaskar (sun salutations – honoring the return of sunlight!) and several breaths in adho mukha svanasana (downward dog pose), the shoulders are open and strengthened to accept body weight. Additional time in plank pose and forearm plank pose can also help strengthen the shoulders. Gomukhasana (cow face pose) and garudasana (eagle pose) arms help open the shoulders. Not only do the hands take the body weight in handstand, but the shoulders need to lift up and out more than they do in our usual daily activities.

Coming into the full expression of the pose in the middle of the room isn’t necessary to experience the joy of being upside down. Support from the wall and keeping one or both feet on the wall are still novel and exciting and fun. And that is what is important - it is the joy of the season that we are celebrating after all!