BACK BENDS MAKE ME HAPPY!!

I have discovered something - back bends make me happy.

Whenever I am in a yoga class I anticipate the back bends, and if they aren't part of the practice I feel sad. I just love going into the wheel asana it makes me feel energized and alive. I have so many other areas of my practice where I don't feel confident and dread when we get to these certain asanas. Finding the balance between acceptance and attachment is really hard.

Recently I felt like I was in a yoga 'funk'. Nothing seemed to be giving me the yoga glow, I felt as though I was losing my way in the yoga journey. Then my yoga teacher said to me, that every time I would go into a back bend she noticed how I looked confident and happy. The positive affirmation that I was doing something that I looked comfortable in, pushed me along and made me feel as though there was an area in my practice that I could go to and feel happy, balanced and energized.

Backbends are an integral part of a sound yoga practice – whether we like it or not. For many of us, heart-opening backbends are daunting and anxiety-producing, leaving us with lingering feelings of self-doubt, apprehension and even panic. But as they say, the pose you like the least is the one you should probably be doing the most. Get an empowering perspective of your practice through backbends.

To make your backbends feel good more often, one of the most valuable things you can do is to initiate the bend by tilting your pelvis backward in a posterior tilt and lightly drawing your lower abdomen back. When you learn to align your pelvis and engage your abdomen this way, it helps you to keep your lower back long and compression free.

Here are some of my favourite pictures of yogi's from all over the world doing their beautiful back bends.