Is fear stopping you from trying certain postures? If you find yourself repeatedly avoiding one or more postures in class, it may be time to face your fears.
I used to avoid crow pose - bakasana - in every class. By the time we got to practising the posture, I told myself, I was too exhausted to even try and scheduled myself some rest in a child’s pose instead. The rest was great but, not surprisingly, I never made any progress towards that crow pose.
The posture looked so scary and I thought my arm muscles surely must be too weak to hold myself up. Had I given it a go, I would have quickly realized that back, shoulder and belly muscles do most of the lifting.
I felt I would surely land on my face, which would be embarrassing. Everyone's anatomy is different, and I just felt that my body wouldn't work with this posture. But some postures just need to be approached differently. You have to try to find out how.
As for landing on your face, it can happen but once you find the tipping point or an edge where balance starts to shift, the likelihood of face-planting the next time is greatly reduced. Again, you have to give it a go to find this point and experience the sensation of lifting.
If bakasana seems a little intimidating or doesn’t make sense yet, sign up for the next workshop. We roll out the crash mat and face our fears of falling together.
By Susanne Kaesbauer
Crow Lift Off! is a 2.5 hour workshop with Alessandro on March 16th at 2pm, where we will explore the foundations and techniques to help you start to lift off and fly. Click here to find out more and sign up today.
263 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7HN
