Invert

I didn’t sleep last night at all and I spent the early hours this morning puttering around my apartment like a zombie. It took a lot of determination (and caffeine) to get me to yoga. Practice was surprisingly ok. But it wasn’t until we did headstands that it got truly zen. I love being upside down.  For someone who has trouble standing on one foot, I can balance fairly easily on the top of my head. And the pressure of the ground on the top of my oh-so-tired head felt remarkably lovely, this morning. 

They say that inversions positively influence all the systems in your body. You heart works a little less to get oxygenated blood to your brain. Glands are stimulated and fluid accumulation drains from your legs and feet. They say that minutes spent upside down equates to hours of sleep. But somehow inversions are more than this for me. It literally changes my perspective and in doing so helps me get past mental and emotional blocks. Maybe it has to do with stimulating my chakras, but I find the mind chatter quiet down and a certain undefinable me-ness emanate. Like coming home to myself.

I found such a sense of peace in headstand this morning that I seriously considered just staying there for the rest of class. My sleep-deprived brain had this crazy thought that there would be far less violence and chaos in this world if we spent more time on our heads. Even now, post-nap, I’m not sure I’m wrong.