Heart of Shoulderstand
15/06/07 15:09
During some of my first yoga classes, I remember being baffled as to how the Shoulder Stand could ever become an easeful or comfortable pose. I would listen while the teacher would try to convince me of its multitude of benefits, wondering if I would ever be able to achieve some state of grace in this seemingly impossible pose. Because the pose is fairly complex, it is rather difficult to attain all of the intricate bits of instruction needed to make this pose more refined and uplifting, as it should be. One key piece of information essential in the instruction for this pose – it is all about regaining faith in the intuition of your heart.
For those of you whose instruction of shoulder stand may not have gotten beyond the physical body, it may come as a surprise to learn that such a physical pose can have a tremendous effect on your emotional and psychological well being. The fact is that yoga asanas (postures) go far beyond creating physical health – they create much larger change – in ways that you may never have imagined. Part of this change comes from not only creating stronger muscles, and a more balanced vital structure, but also by instilling a greater sense of peace and well being in your emotions and psyche.
When yogis do a pose such as Salamba Sarvangasana (the Sanskrit word for supported shoulder stand), they do not just turn their bodies upside down, but they turn their whole world upside down. While this is not as dramatic a change as, say, headstand, for example, the shoulder stand also provides a different perspective on your physical world, and you have the opportunity to observe the state of your body in the meantime. While you are underneath your uplifted body, you can watch your breathing and the expansion of your chest, including your heart. With this view, you see that your heart is now physically placed above your head, giving you the opportunity to see from where your decisions should be made.
The yogi strives to live from the heart, but most often our daily lives demand that we live from our overactive and overworked minds. We rationalize, quantify, and qualify all our decisions. We second guess and get nervous when our heart calls us to act. But it is the spirit of the heart that allows us to feel freely and liberate our worried minds. By placing the heart above the head, and seeing it there, we have a clear reminder that our heart is there to guide us and it has a tremendous amount of intuition and knowledge that cannot be discounted as we move along our yoga path. It is difficult for us to remember that the heart can be our guiding force, because this wisdom is often discounted by those around us. But think of how often your heart has told you to go to yoga class to find some stillness and your mind has told you that you can’t because you just have too many errands to run…which was right?
When your heart finally does win and you make it to yoga class, embrace the opportunity to give Salamba Sarvangasana your best effort. You can start easing yourself into the pose by beginning with bridge pose, or Setu Bandhasana. This will give you the feeling of drawing your chest toward your chin, and stretching high onto your shoulders, just as you do in shoulder stand. To practice setu bandhasana, lay on your back, knees bent, with your feet close to your sits bones. Lay your hands flat by your hips, and tuck your shoulders under, beginning the expansion of your chest. Lift your hips off the floor, and interlace your fingers underneath you. Press your palms together, and stretch higher up onto your shoulders. If clasping your hands is difficult, instead, try supporting your hips with your hands, bending your elbows so you can support yourself. Knees should be over your ankles, and no wider than hip width apart.
As you breathe in this pose, keep in mind that drawing your chest closer to your chin and balancing on your shoulders rather than your neck is a key element to make the leap from this pose to shoulder stand. Setu bandhasana is an excellent place to start the journey toward the expansion of your heart – not to mention the healing of your physical body and balancing of your glandular system. When you are comfortable with the elements of this pose, the next pose that will assist in preparing for shoulder stand is Halasana, or plow pose.
To enter plow pose, begin by lying on your back. If you have any neck issues, it is wise to place a folded blanket underneath your shoulders and elbows to reduce strain in the cervical spine. As you lie on your back, lift your feet up and over your head, onto the floor behind you, or onto a chair or bolster if your feet do not make it to the floor. Interlace your fingers behind you and lift higher up onto your shoulders. It is very important in all of these poses that your cervical spine – specifically the part of your spine between your neck and upper back that protrudes slightly – not be supporting your body. Keep in mind that you are trying to achieve a shoulder stand, not a spine stand. It is a common problem to collapse into the neck, and this is where many troubles can occur. When in Setu Bandhasana, Halasana or Salamba Sarvangasana, a teacher should be able to place about two fingers between your spine and the floor, and between your shoulder blades – ensuring that you are not placing undue pressure on the neck.
Once the spine is properly lifted, and you have lifted up onto your shoulders in Plow Pose, try then to straighten your spine, and reach your sits bones higher toward the ceiling. Keeping the hands clasped, reaching the arms to the floor, work on straightening the spine. This can be assisted by lifting the femurs (thigh bones) toward the ceiling as well. Work on keeping your legs straight and reaching the heels away from you.
As you do your best in Halasana, keep in mind that ‘Hala’ means poison. This pose is designed to allow you to let go of any poison that may be keeping you from yoga – or union with ultimate joy. This poison could be the tightness you feel in your hips, or the uptightness that you feel in your heart. Either way, as you balance on your shoulders and lengthen your spine, remember to breathe into the tough places…in your body and in your mind.
Each asana presents you with the opportunity to create a little more space in your body. Whether you create space in your hamstrings through the yoga asanas, space in your mind through yogic breathing, or space in your heart through practicing kindness (karma yoga), you are creating space that will help you become a better yogi, and in turn affect those around you. As you better yourself, you also improve upon your relationships with others. Since it is our relationships with others that are really what make up our entire world, this is a very important thing to consider while doing a yoga practice, especially when doing plow pose. Plow pose was specifically designed for you to let go of whatever is poisoning your space – so that you could create new space for the encouragement of your heart to shine through.
When you have successfully cultivated proper alignment (so as not to cause injury) and a calm mind in plow pose, then work on Salamba Sarvangasana can begin. You may wish to start with a more modified version of the pose, especially if you are a beginner. The modified versions will help to give you a feel for what being in the full pose is like, without so much of the struggle that the full pose can bring. To start in a modified shoulder stand, sit against a wall, and have two folded blankets right next to you. Lie down sideways on the folded blankets, and then turn over so that you are lying on your back. Your seat should be against the wall, and you shoulders should be at the edge of the blankets with the head on the floor. Press your hands down next to you and press your feet into the wall to lift your seat up off of the floor. Interlace your fingers behind you and stretch up higher onto your shoulders, and press your feet into the wall so that your knees are at a right angle. Bend your elbows and press your hands to your back for more support.
This supported version of a shoulder stand will help to prepare you for the full pose by stretching your upper back and neck without the strain of supporting your entire body. You are also more able to focus on maintaining safe alignment of the neck, and lifting sufficiently so that you are supported by your shoulders rather than your cervical spine, as well as developing the muscles in your body that will help to support yourself when you are ready to come off the wall.
When you are comfortable in the modified version of the pose, experiment by straightening one leg out, and then the other while keeping the breathing steady. It is always safe to use a blanket or two as a prop in this pose, and I would suggest continuing to use a blanket until you have had sufficient practice and instruction. Moving away from the wall is the next step. If you choose to use blankets, try folding your mat over the top of the blankets to give yourself more traction so as to keep your elbows from sliding apart as you support yourself with your hands. To come into the pose away from the wall, first enter Halasana, and then support your back with your hands. When you are ready, stretch your legs up toward the ceiling. Your body should essentially be straight up and down, but this will be difficult at first – until you have built the strength and confidence to use your entire body to lift up.
While in this pose, try to watch your body correct and straighten itself as you stretch up higher with every breath. Lift the legs away from the pelvis, the pelvis away from the ribcage, and the ribcage away from the shoulders. As you observe your body lifting up, imagine that your internal organs are doing the same thing. When you turn yourself upside down in an inversion such as shoulder stand, your entire internal physiology has to adjust to the tremendous change. This causes your internal organs to strengthen and work better, your heart to pump more efficiently, not to mention the refreshing of blood and oxygen to your brain, allowing you to think more clearly. Shoulder stand is often deemed the ‘Queen of Asanas’ and it’s no wonder why. The pose carries tremendous benefits, some of the most notable being its affects on your glandular and endocrine system.
The chin lock and the fact that the rest of your body is upside down places pressure on the thyroid and parathyroid glands in the neck, as well as the pineal and thymus glands in the head and chest. These glands are responsible for many different hormone levels, and massaging them through shoulder stand can help to regulate your endocrine system by squeezing any old blood and fluids out of these vital glands, and when you release from the pose, a fresh supply of fluids helps to further flush the area out and rejuvenate it. Not only does shoulder stand greatly affect your endocrine system, but it also affects your kidneys and calms your nervous system.
Because of all of the positive changes that it inspires, it is highly recommended to do this ‘Queen of Asanas’ every day, and it is said that the pose should eventually be held for no less than five minutes. As you get more confident in the pose, try building upon your length of time. With more confidence will come more flexibility and strength, and eventually you may wish to try full Salamba Sarvangasana without the support of a wall or blanket. In full shoulder stand, extend your heels up until your body is perpendicular to the floor, and press your hands to your back to continue lifting your ribs. Draw your tailbone into the body and try not to collapse the lower back. Most importantly, use the strength of your entire body to lift and lengthen the spine upward. Move your ears away from your shoulders, lengthening your neck while drawing your chest closer to your chin. Enjoy the calming and peacefulness of the pose as you observe you heart.
The Sanskrit name of this pose literally means ‘all parts supported’. Consider this. If all parts are supported then you no longer need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders, and you can rest in the confidence of knowing that everything is being held up. When we get to the point in our lives that things are spiraling out of control and we forget to live from the heart, this pose will help us to reconnect and find our true spirit. We can observe our own heart opening, and we can then let ourselves open up into the spirit of our heart, which is true joy. If all the parts of our lives are supported, how can we not find the peace and bliss in all situations? Have this confidence, and open up to the possibilities of living from the heart.
Each time you do a shoulder stand you have the chance to remind yourself that the power of your heart is the greatest guiding intuition that you have, and that the practices of yoga are designed to help you realize that it is your mind’s clutter that will prevent you from comprehending this truth. When you do begin to remember on a regular basis that listening to your heart is important, and staying true to your yoga practice will affect all aspects of your life, then talking about the correlation between the body and mind will no longer seem like such a stretch.