The Manasa Yoga School held the Handstand Intensive yesterday and it was awesome fun! Truth to tell, I have been practising my handstands a lot since last year, and the consistent practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa has also helped me activate uddiyana bhanda better. Saying that, I am still unable to do a freestanding handstand.
However, because this is a yoga handstand workshop, as opposed to a gymnastics workshop, we began practise by grounding into the present, using Manasa’s three-step process to see if we could see who was actually doing the handstand.
Personally, I learnt a lot as a teacher during this workshop. I helped to guide two male practitioners and it was interesting. Also interesting was breaking down the handstand and what was required to be able to do a handstand (aside from balancing once you are on top).
Notwithstanding the yoga foundation, we did practise some fun cartwheels and variations, mainly to build up confidence and ensure safety if we lost our balance. As for me, I used to be able to balance in handstand without the wall two years ago, but after a few falls, I kind of lost the nerve.
I am slowly getting back my nerve now and since I have begun practising Ashtanga Vinyasa seriously, a lot of my fear has gone. What about you? Can you do a freestanding handstand?