My headstand journey

In August I went on holidays to South of France where, besides visiting different places and enjoying nice hikes and local camp sites, I also took an opportunity to practice a headstand in the nature. One of the reasons to try a headstand in the nature was to prove myself that I can do it in different places, as well as it looks beautiful when surrounded by beach or mountains . Now looking back to the pictures and videos from my holidays I thought would be nice to share my headstand journey also with you.

How did it all start…

Just before the Corona lock down this year in spring, in the middle of one of our climbing practices my friend Lucia suggested us to try a handstand. So half of our climbing group got into trying handstands against the wall with help from each other. My first attempt was lots of nervous laughing to get on my arms and feeling quite anxious to let my legs go up on the wall. At the end, with some help of my friends, I managed to get my legs above my head and stayed there second or two on my arms.

After that I tried few more times on mattress since that encouraged me more then a wall and, by end of the evening, I managed to do one attempt of the handstand against the wall on my own.

Headstands and handstands….

You probably are wondering why I am speaking about handstand while this post should be about my headstand experience. Well, it started with trying out a handstand and realizing what it means to hold one. After that I learned from my friends about headstands which seamed easier to start with and more appealing to practice also on my own. That’s how my headstand journey begun…

Maybe a short explanation what is what before carrying on with the journey . So there are two things – handstand and headstand, I mentioned so far.

Handstand is holding your body weight on your hands upside down (hands work as two balance points to keep the body straight), while headstand is doing the same but on head and forearms (head and forearms create a sort of triangle on the floor to keep the balance) providing more balance points as well as is closer to the floor (for me it was encouraging factor to give it a try comparing to handstand :-)). There are lots of variations for both. Below I would like to show you an example of head and handstands.

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Getting into headstand…

Once the headstand with a little distance from the wall (15 cm) got comfortable, we increase the distance until it was possible to make a headstand completely away from the wall. Which means also learning to fall when loosing the balance. I must admit that the best places for practicing headstands and falling are parks and beaches. The grass and sand are soft and absorbing falls, therefore also gives more confidence to try again and again. Another benefit of sand is extra support by creating a position for your arms and head in sand to provide more stability while lifting up your legs.

What headstand practice taught me….

I am impressed every time I manage to hold a headstand. Starting from simple position with legs straight up until different variations. Now I’m daring to try different leg positions and discover what else I can learn with the headstand. It’s amazing to look back to my first experience with handstand few months ago and the feelings which I experienced back then and today when I can freely manage a headstand in nature whenever I want. With time and effort you can learn everything. Well, almost everything. It’s logical but often I feel that many things are not possible for me because I cannot imagine how I can learn/do that. The thing is, if I want to learn something, I just need to start and spend some time every day to practice. It is a very simple learning but I had to go through the headstand journey to remind myself that it is true for everything I want to master.

I am very happy that I started this journey and I am very glad to have my friends to keep practicing with and share the learnings and progress with. Thank you ladies, Lucia and Caro! :*

Now I am scrolling through Pinterest and getting inspired by beautiful yoga poses with head and handstands on the beach. I decided to practice until the next summer to see what I can learn by then. My goal is to have a professional photo shoot on the beach with beautiful yoga routine, including handstands (hopefully). Curious how will it turn out.

What skills have you picked up in last months or maybe currently are practicing? Please share in the comments bellow, I’d love to read.

P.S. If you would like to start your own headstand journey, please make sure to check how to learn and practice it in a safe way and avoid injuries!

Thank you for joining my journey and I’ll see you next time!