I have a Your Body Best Instagram account. It’s not a record-breaking account, by any stretch. And maybe that’s partly because I don’t post a lot of handstand selfies.
In fact, there’s not a single handstand picture there. And why not? Handstands are fun! Handstands get lots of likes! If you’re really a yoga teacher, where are your handstand selfies?
Why Don’t I Do Handstand Selfies?
It’s hard for me to remember to take photos of things constantly.
Also, I don’t handstand.
That is, I don’t work on it very often.
It’s fun, for sure. I can hold it for a long time against the wall, and I can tap my feet right off the wall and find balance for several seconds. Maybe 15 seconds. But not minutes, no.
I can handstand in the middle of the room or the yard for a few seconds. I can hop up or kick up. Typically, I can’t maintain it for long.
And that’s okay for now.
Yoga Offers So Much More Than Handstands
Even as a kid in gymnastics, I struggled with holding handstands. Then I didn’t work on it for years. When I got into yoga, there was so much else to work on. In fact, it never occurred to me to work on handstands until Instagram became popular and I started feeling like the only yoga teacher who wasn’t handstanding on cliffs and fence posts.
For awhile, I told myself I’d work on handstands, but even then, it was just a couple of minutes per day. Then every couple of days. Now it’s back to once in a while. They’re fun…but there’s so much more to yoga.
I don’t want to dedicate my entire practice to standing on my hands. There are benefits, sure. It takes a lot of core strength and control, which translates into more control for other poses and transitions, many of which I’ve seen handstanders do that I can’t do yet.
There are also lots of benefits to being upside down, but I get those from downward dog, shoulder stand, and headstand.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing to work on handstands, to feeling some satisfaction in finding your balance up there and learning to hold it for longer and longer. But don’t let your practice get tied up in one pose, be it handstand or anything else. There are handstanding yogis who are very good teachers, and handstanding yogis who are not; handstanders who are truly advanced in their yoga practice….and handstanders who are not.
Moving Forward
There are so many poses. Do I want to do better handstands? Sure. And I’ll continue to work on them. But not daily. Not obsessively. Not as a measure of how “advanced” my yoga practice is. I find greater challenges in certain breathing techniques, holding warrior II for several minutes, and meditating. I find so much joy and challenge in the wide variety of other poses I can practice.
Have you ever found yourself caught up in chasing one particular pose? Do you practice handstands?