Neck Free, Pain Free Headstand with Chairs Using the Bheka Turtle

Neck Free, Pain Free Headstand with Chairs Bheka Turtle Makes Neck Free Headstand More Relaxed Than Ever! Sometimes unlikely combinations create something that is more than the sum of their parts. The Bheka Turtle was originally created as a meditation cushion and a chair cover for restorative and therapuetic poses. While it is wonderful for those things, I discovered it makes a very comfortable nest for your shoulders when doing chair assisted headstands as is often taught in Iyengar studios. Having the neck free makes the practice safe for people with cervical vertebrae issues and using the Turtle really relieves any pressure on the shoulders by spreading it as much as possible Into the deep cushion. Neck Free, Pain Free Headstand : The Setup All you need for this set up is two sturdy chairs and two Bheka Turtles. If you do not have any Turtles you can use blankets or folded over layers of yoga mats for cushioning but you will have much more pressure on your shoulders than with the Turtles. Notice the non-slip feet on the chairs. If you don't have that you can put them on yoga mats. I like the stability of these chairs facing forward but with folding chairs you may prefer to have them facing each other. Keep them near the wall so your feet can reach the wall for maximum relaxation. Neck Free, Pain Free Headstand: Getting Started Once you have the chairs set up you just need to insert your head and bend your knees. I call this the Ostrich pose and it is great for hiding from your yoga teacher. You won't be lingering here for long though. Press weight into the hands, tighten the abs and roll up into headstand. Neck Free, Pain Free Headstand: Doing it Right Rolling up into the pose means just that. First bring your knees to your elbows and rest there for a few breaths, getting used to the inversion and feeling whatever comes up for you. When you feel comfortable raise the knees to above your hips but keep your knees bent. Your feet may find the wall here and that is OK. Again relax, breathe and sense into the pose. Finally, straighten the legs for the full posture with the legs away from the wall. You can do split leg variations from here if you like. In the next step you will find the most relaxing way of doing this beneficial inversion. Neck Free, Pain Free Headstand: Relax Completely To find total relaxation let your feet rest against the wall, so balance is less of a concern. Then release your arms and just hang. Ahhh.... The organic buckwheat hull stuffing in your Bheka Turtles provides just the right amount of firm yet gentle support letting you maintain this posture as long as you like.

Neck Free, Pain Free Headstand: Go Down and Come Up Slowly When you are ready to come down, bring the hands back to the chair so you can engage your abs and slowly lower down the way you went up. First bring the feet away from the wall, then bend the knees, then bring the knees to your elbows and then slowly lower the feet to the floor. Stop. Stay in this position, the Ostrich pose, for a few breathes. The longer you are inverted the more slowly you should come up. Once you sense that the blood has truly stabilized then feel free to stand up. If you cannot tell what's happening with your blood pressure just count 12 breaths before coming fully up. If you have any questions or suggestions please post them below.

For further usage information on Bheka Turtles and wholesale and retail purchase information click here.

Intermediate and Advanced Mysore Yoga Strap Demo

The best in aerial yoga!

Mysore Yoga Strap Beginning Moves Video!

I never posted a You Tube video before but I've never had one about a great item like this that I wanted to share before!  As you will see the Mysore Yoga Strap is great for inversions, supported postures and just plain fun!  I plan to create intermediate and advanced videos for your viewing pleasure as well!

True Confession: " I Am a Horrible Yoga Teacher."

It was an "AHA" moment. Suddenly I got it. Something that had been going on for years came into consciousness with the sharp boom of truth and I was/am embarrassed. I share about it here hoping to save others from this shameful fate.

 The evening began normally enough. My lightly attended class was even lighter than usual with only one student. I love when that happens. The attendee gets my full attention and often shares more than I would hear in a fuller class. On this night Sam complained of stomach problems likely brought on by some terribly stressful circumstances in his life. After some discussion as to his interest in addressing this yogically, I set about teaching breathing and digestive exercises that can be helpful in such circumstances and soon realized that though Sam had been taking class with me for a couple of years he still didn't have the first clue about belly breathing. What?! No belly breahting!?! How could this be?!?!

 The most basic, primary thing taught to all beginning yoga students. The relaxing foundation on which all other yoga relaxation and correct pranayam rests and my student who I had seen over 50 times didn't know about it. Fie! I have been remiss.

 I set about correcting this problem by teaching what I know about this, but the situation was even worse than I thought! Before getting to how deep the problem went I want to digress with a short review of belly breathing and its importance to proper relaxation. I do this to inform the uninitiated reader, to remind the knowledgeable and to begin to make amends for my egregious error during more than 15 years of teaching.

One of the earliest lessons and something I do whenever I have new students who come for more than a week or two to my mixed class, is to lie down place hands on either side of the navel and feel the expansion and contraction of the belly on inhalation and exhalation.

Sometimes they have trouble feeling it since their stomachs are so tight and it takes time to allow themselves to relax the belly. This might take weeks of attempts for some students. I explain that belly breathing is natural breathing. We are all born belly breathers. Baby's belly breathe. As we tense up, put on our emotional armor and become acculturated (or take Pilates) we learn to tighten the belly on inhalation. Unlearning this takes time, focused attention and desire. It is something I did when I was a tween some 40 plus years ago and since then I have become a 100% belly breather. Not just in yoga class, I belly breathe all day, all night and even when I sleep. I switched back to natural breath and never  looked back. Unfortunately, I forgot that my students weren't doing this and that I needed to emphasize it to help them to experience it.  Big whoops!

OK so this is belly breath is natural breathing. We all did it as baby's and like so many things from infancy we have learned to do it differently. But why is it so important to relaxation? There are two main reasons that I know of. One is that relaxed abdominal breathing is less work than tightening the stomach or drawing it in to make the chest larger. The other is that working the belly is a way of holding tension. Fully relaxing the stomach requires softening the abdomen and this naturally leads to, you guessed it, belly breathe. This bears repeating. When the belly is relaxed the abdomen becomes soft and naturally expands on inhalation. It is a marker of relaxation. Like many things in yoga we modify what we do with the body and our minds take the hint. So softening the abdomen and letting the belly expand on inhalation makes it easier to relax. Cool huh?

Even though I had taught this to Sam years ago, I haven't been reminding him about it enough that it sunk in. Now here's where it gets worse. I checked with Sandy, a student who has been taking with me for 15 years. You can see how my teaching has informed the way she does her postures and I'm proud of my connection with her. I have created a special series of pranayam and guided relaxations for her and she has heard my explanation of belly breathing dozens of times as new people joined our class over the years and you know what? She is not belly breathing throughout our yoga class nor did she realize she ought to be. Oy vey. There are lots of other Yiddish words, mostly of self denigration that I think of here but won't share (email me if you must know them).

 Beating myself up about this isn't helping anyone,however. (except perhaps the random Yiddish lover) Clearly I have to reemphasize breathing and specifically belly breathing in my classes. While I have been reminding my students to keep breathing slowly and deeply and through the nose as much as possible I've been leaving out the important expansion of the abdomen on inhalation and contraction on exhalation in those reminders. OM forgive me.

From Our Families to yours Happy Thanksgiving!!!