How to handstand: the art of the abs. And the secret mystery of life.

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The thing is, everybody wants to pop their tail-feather up into a handstand. Don’t try and hide it – I know you do.

Whether or not it’s a “handstand” in particular, we all want those super impressive “power-poses” – those ones that sky rocket you to INSTA-FAME. I have spent many weeks trying tirelessly to hold up a handstand for longer than 6 seconds and MAN. Is it exhausting!

When I first signed up to my teacher training with Yoga London – I thought, BRILLIANT! in the next week of training I will be a fully fledged handstander. I will be BUSTING out these “handstands” like it AIN’T NO THANG.

Then we spent the next 1.5 months working through Sun Salutations. and I thought to myself “I CAME HERE TO LEARN EPIC STUFF!!! WHAT. IS. THIS. SHIT?!?”

But here’s the kicker: this teacher training program knows how things REALLY go down. (Or in the case of handstands – how things really go up).

“Handstands” (and ‘epic poses’ in general) are a complete by-product of everything else. Everyone sees the sunset-handstand-beach insta-shots and thinks, “YEAH! I WANT TO HOLD A HANDSTAND FOREVER!”

I am pretty sure that no-one thinks “YEAH! I WANNA SIT IN NAVASANA FOR HALF A DAY TO GET MY CORE STRONG ENOUGH TO HOLD ME UPSIDE DOWN!”.

Yep. It’s like we’re all keen for the massive mansion on the seaside, but no one’s really that interested in dealing with the bricks.

One of the longest handstands I have ever held in my whole life (see it in all it’s epic glory here) came on an afternoon when I wasn’t thinking about “handstanding” at all. I decided to just focus on drawing in with my core, planting through my fingers, engaging my shoulder girdle and letting go of the whole idea of “handstanding” in general. I still have a long way to go in my own “handstanding” journey – but having had this experience, I have become way less attached to “handstanding” in general, and more focused on building strength in my core, power in my arms and stability in my shoulder girdle. When these pieces are ready, I know the puzzle will just click.

I’ve used the word “handstand” in “inverted commas” (ha) throughout this blog post because the truth is, you can substitute ‘handstands’ for anything in life. Starting my own creative business was very similar to wanting to handstand. I just wanted to make pretty things, draw loads of cool stuff and make a crap ton of money. I didn’t want to sit and spend 6 hours creating new product listings, checking stock inventory, organising my taxes or creating invoices. I wanted the end product, without being interested in every single (sometimes obnoxious) step (and all the failures { ie: falling out of handstands}) that come before it. Whether it’s starting a new business, pursuing a creative venture, or beginning a new workout regime – in order to achieve we have to be committed to the PROCESS, not the outcome.

Being committed to the process gives purpose to every single thing you do. Without focusing on the ‘losing 8kgs’, every single healthy nutritious meal you have becomes a personal investment to yourself. Without focusing on the 6 pack abs, it makes every workout you do epic and awesome. Without focusing on your multi-million dollar yacht, it makes every client you engage with exciting. Without focusing on the mansion, it makes the brick you are holding important, necessary, vital. Then before you know it, you’ll step back and a seaside villa will have appeared from no-where – all thanks to you and your dedication to the bricks.

Anyway that’s my two cents.

So now if you’ll excuse me – I’m off to practice my handstanding –

Just kidding –
I’ll meet you in Navasana.

 

2 Comments

  1. Johanna on April 14, 2015 at 12:53 pm

    So much truth in this blogpost 🙂 I really need to come back to process rather than result in Yoga, it felt like I was actually getting addicted to achieving a new cool pose every day, and sometimes I almost hurt my body trying to achieve it… seriously not cool, and (to me) not at all what yoga stands for. Thank you for the friendly reminder how important the work leading up to it is 🙂

    • Ché Dyer on April 15, 2015 at 7:00 am

      Yes! I completely agree! So glad you feel the same too – the joy is in the journey! I also think a lot of the time (esp for lots of instagram challenges – {which I love}) it can be easy to get caught up in trying to get into the “end” postures – that our bodies just aren’t ready for, instead of just taking the time to appreciate where our bodies are today and working from there! <3)

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