I have been in pursuit of mastering (well actually doing one for the first time) a handstand off and on for the last couple of years. I can walk up the wall, but didn’t think I was strong enough to completely hold the handstand. Then reality struck me like a ton of bricks…my strength isn’t the problem. Yes, I can definitely stand to build more upper body and core strength, but that isn’t what is holding me back. It’s FEAR. Good ‘ole fashion FEAR. I am afraid of falling on the top of my head…again…yeah that happened back in high school when I was attempting to learn how to complete a back handspring. Needless to say that after falling on the top of my head, I pretty much gave up that dream. But it was that experience that was holding me back from my handstand victory!! So today, I built up the courage to try a headstand. I realized that in order to overcome my fear of falling on my head, I just needed to stand on top of my head…ok so I’m not sure if that thinking was rational but it made sense to me! So today I tried. I started with yoga blocks but they didn’t quite work for me so I tossed them aside and went for it.
It took a few tries, but I was finally confident enough to kick my legs up to the wall and balance on top of my head.
DR. STASSI 