Inversions

Here is my bit about poses in yoga that involve reversing the direction of the flow at different parts of the body. The way they are made to work is by a simple technique of working with the gravity; Yes!, we use gravity to work on our body, mind and soul! A perfect example of an inversion pose is a head stand, that is standing on one's head with the whole body inverted and legs vertically up. Sounds scary to me, and of course it is difficult for many.

But, there are other poses that make sure that each organ is inverted. The complete list of yogas that think substitutes the head stand:

1. Forward fold: Uttanasana
2. Downward facing dog: Adhomukha Svanasana
3. Bridge pose: Viparita Dandasana
4. legs up stretch: Supta Padangusthasana
5. Shoulder stand: Salambha Sarvangasana
6. Waterfall pose: Viparita Karani

Some of the poses like Viparita Dandasana (see above) requires folding the body backwards. A golden rule is to follow them up with savasana (lying down pose) or forward bends, like Supta Padangusthasana (see above), in the case of the bridge pose.

Another thing I noticed by my practice of the asanas at home is the following: When I try to do standing poses, I tend to remember to complete my favorite standing poses. This way, I do not have to stand up while I am in the middle of sitting poses. Ditto for sitting and lying down poses. That is why I have arranged the above inversion poses from standing to lying down ones. This way, I make sure I do them all, of course if my mind co-operates. We will see about the soul-part of yoga later!