For me, yoga has been a series of confrontations. Before I even walked into the class it was my clothing, then once in class it was my coordination, then it was having to stare at my belly as I performed the shoulder stand. More recently my confrontation has been the handstand. Even with loving and soothing support of Yoga instructors and friends, I was unwilling to turn my body upside down while pushing up from the floor into a balancing act.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop that a premier Yoga instructor (Rodney Yee) was conducting. Before class began he made sure that those of us who were beginners or were hesitant about the handstand pose (against the wall), were paired up with one of the many good instructors also taking the class. I still could not surrender to the pose. Then Rodney came over to use me as an example to show the class how to fully support someone who was having difficulty attempting the pose. Boom! I went up into the handstand.

At that moment, I knew for certain that aborted attempts in the past were simply me being offered the opportunity to get past my mind. This was not a physical restriction, this was a mental block. The embarrassment of having this mental block that I perpetrated onto myself witnessed by others, was greater than my fear of not being physical willing to go up into a hand stand.