Germany, Feb 2024, Vrschikasana, first attempts
Yesterday was the Asana Coaching workshop with the Sivanandas. A lot of yogis filled the lobby pretty quickly. It turned out that most of them wanted to do soft yoga. Only four women, including myself, had signed up for the asana coaching. One woman wanted to learn the headstand, one woman wanted to learn the crow and two women, including me, wanted to learn the scorpion from the headstand.
As you can see in the picture: My scorpion already looks different than it did before the workshop. I learned a lot. But I didn't manage to hold the position for even a second. The other yogini, who also wanted to learn this pose, felt the same way. That's not what I expected to learn either. I am more than happy that I dared to try and get into it. In class, the teacher held my ankles so I wouldn't fall out of the pose.
I went home. I was in a good mood and full of optimism. I didn't hurt myself. I now have a sense of my next steps.
The following exercise was suggested for us to do at home:
1. get into a handstand.
2. from there, move your bent legs backwards. Your knees should be wide apart. This helps with balancing. The feet do not have to touch each other.
3. then return to headstand and move your straight legs in the other direction.
4 This swinging movement forwards and backwards strengthens your sense of balance.
The steps to get into Scorpio:
1. get into a headstand.
2. bend your legs over, knees flexed. The feet are side by side.
3. open your hands and place your palms on the floor.
4. the next step is the most difficult: roll your head onto your forehead and push yourself up. This requires strength. It is easier to lift your head off the mat if you push your hands forward. But this is also the moment when you usually fall out of the pose. I can't imagine not falling.
The headstand should never be practiced in front of a wall. Once you start, you will never get away from the wall. I have seen this happen a number of times.
You can do the scorpion posture with the wall as a support.
In spite of this, tomorrow I am going to try to fall out of the posture at least three times. It's very frightening. Only by consciously learning to fall can you overcome it. I think my backbends are good enough that I won't hurt myself if I fall backwards. It's a test of courage, nothing more.
A start has been made.
The instructions for the crow were also interesting. I will write about that tomorrow.
Will I have the courage to fall out of position?
I could film it. Haha........