APRIL FOCUS OF THE MONTH: INVERSIONS

“If You Always Do What You've Always Done, You'll Always Get What You've Always Got.”

~ Henry Ford

  This quote sounds so simple, yet it can be so hard to embrace change and/or accept a new perspective. It takes a lot of effort and mindfulness to step away from what’s so familiar to us and step toward something new and different. And yet if we’re happy with what we’ve always done and that brings us joy and contentment, then why stir things up and seek out something different?

So I guess a good question to ask here is, are you still on that search for joy and contentment? How can you find joy and contentment in every moment just as it is? Why do we keep searching for something that may be right in front of us all along? Ok, yeah a lot of big questions.

This quote by Henry Ford inspires us to do some “inner work” and this work takes effort, most likely some change, and possibly getting out of your comfort zone.  This work might be more about ‘getting out of our head’ as I like to call it. This means listening to your heart and following your gut more. Sometimes that voice is really hard to hear, because the noise of the mind can be loud and harder to ignore. We think it makes more sense to follow those thoughts and judgements because they’re coming from a place of logic. 

However, when we listen to our heart voice and acknowledge the fear and the discomfort we may be holding onto, we can give ourselves permission to feel them without judgment. That in and of itself is possibly changing “what you’ve always done”. Instead of ignoring that voice and the feelings associated with it, you listen and allow the voice to guide you forward. You are changing your perspective, which is also a way to not do the same thing you’ve always done. We can still find joy and contentment even if we take those feelings of doubt, fear, anxiety, discomfort, etc. along for the ride. They may be part of your journey, but eventually they will fall away.

   My husband recently shared something with me he came across online (see THRIVE for more), a tip for how to shift one's perspective when feeling a negative mindset creeping in. When you start to think of all the things you can’t do and feel like it’s just easier to keep going along with “what you’ve always done,” simply add the word ‘yet’ to the end of the sentence. For example, rather than thinking ‘I can’t run 3 miles,’ I instead think ‘I can’t run 3 miles yet.’ That little, but also very BIG change may be enough to help you reframe your mindset and see a different perspective.

Inversions

 In our yoga practice [on the mat] there are times when we are asked to try a pose that gets us out of our comfort zone and may take a little more effort. Sometimes new, unfamiliar poses challenge us both physically and mentally to ‘get out of our head’. For many of us that’s what happens when the teacher says, “let’s practice inversions.”

Inversions describe the category of yoga poses in which your heart and hips are above your head, thus "inverting" the body from its normal upright position. These types of poses may sound scary and intimidating, but they aren't all as complex as we might think. There are several yoga poses that we practice quite regularly that fall into the inversion category like downward facing dog, standing forward folds and bridge pose to name a few. ⁠Some advanced, more complex inversions are ones like shoulderstand, headstand, handstand, scorpion, and even crow pose which is both an arm balance and inversion. An inversion may challenge us to shift our perspective, as we physically turn our body upside down. If we can ‘get out of our head’, it could be a lot easier to tap into the confidence and courage needed to let go of any fear or discomfort we may be experiencing.

       The goal of yoga inversions is to improve flexibility, energy and even self-esteem as they promote emotional growth. They also help release tension, strengthen muscles, and are calming for the mind and spirit. Another significant benefit of inversions is that they help stimulate circulation in the body that brings a feeling of lightness to the body upon release.

From an Ayurvedic lense inversions are a category of postures that help to pacify kapha dosha, which is associated with the season of Spring. They can help to relieve the congestion of accumulated kapha dosha. Energetically, inversions stimulate the movement of udana vayu, the ascending energy that directs the flow of prana from lower to higher states of consciousness; thus, they connect us with the sahasrara chakra [crown chakra]. The crown chakra acts as the individual's center of spirit, enlightenment, wisdom, universal consciousness, and connection to higher guidance. 

  If what brings you joy and contentment in your yoga practice is practicing the restorative or gentler inversions, well lucky for us there are plenty of them, like my favorite legs up the wall pose [viparita karana]! Staying in our comfort zone is OK and on some days what we need for our practice. However, it’s helpful to remember that when we step outside our comfort zone we create space to learn and grow. Maybe in the end we learn that we don’t like headstand and that legs up the wall just feels better for us; still exploring our mind, body and spirit is a wonderful experience where so much learning and growth happens.

“If you always do what you’ve always done”- if you stay in that comfort zone, “then you’ll get what you’ve always got”- you’ll keep getting the same results and you aren’t supporting your personal growth. This doesn’t mean that we HAVE to do the advanced inversions and should be focused on seeing results to be better yogis. Starting a yoga practice and attending public classes is the first step in stepping out of our comfort zone for a lot people. A consistent yoga practice in and of itself helps to teach us how to find joy and contentment with ‘what is’…with what is right in front of us and all around us.

Just remember, it is your practice. Some days we may show up on our mat and need to stay in our comfort zone, yet other days we might feel inspired to step a little out of our comfort zone. We might be ready to get ‘out of our head’, add ‘yet’ to our sentence, and take the next step (big or small) with the wisdom of our heart voice.