If you have dreams of doing more with your body, today’s story is for you! It is a true tale about a woman not giving up on her dream of being able to confidently kick into a handstand in the middle of the room alone. At 59.5 she made that reality come true for the first time!

This true story takes place at my most recent handstand workshop, but there IS a deeper meaning and encouragement in it for you beyond just standing on your hands.

I taught this workshop about a month ago here on the north shore of Kauai. One of the first to respond that she was coming was a 59.5 year old woman, Kim, who loves working-out.

Her email reply stated that she wants to come but that she is certain she will be the most scared person in the room. She showed up anyways!

Fast forward to the opening of our handstand workshop. There were 7 amazing women who attended the 2 hour class and as we all settled onto our mats I asked them, “Who here has some kind of fear about doing a handstand all by yourself in the middle of the room?”

Guess how many of the 7 women raised their hands? Seven! Every single one of them had some fear around making this goal of theirs a reality, and yet they still showed up to a handstand workshop! How fricking cool is that?!

[heading]Handstands Can Be Scary. You Are Flipping Your Reality Upside Down![/heading]

Fear is the #1 reason most people don’t attempt to learn a handstand. And believe me the reasons are plentiful. Scared they will fall over, scared they are not strong enough to support themselves, scared they will break their neck or fall on their face and smash their noses.  Can you relate to any of this?

So before we got into our first down dog we spoke about how our emotions and subconscious mind have reigns on our handstands. I asked them a few more questions, and then based on their answers gave them a mantra that had meaning for them, one that they could say and BELIEVE IN.

The mantra was, “I playfully and courageously practice handstands forever.” I had them write this mantra down on a piece of paper to solidify this new possibility into their brains before we did anything else. (This mantra held a great resonance by the end of our session.)

Aligning Your Thoughts And Belief In Handstand

Now believe me, I love to get all alignment geeky with poses, because well it can make all the difference in a pose feeling ok to a pose feeling and therapeutically being amazing. But in this particular workshop I took it from an emotional and deep inner dialogue aspect and wow was it insightful. By the end of the workshop every single woman experienced trying a handstand in the middle of the room all by herself!

Learning A Handstand At Almost 60 Years Old!

Lets get back to Kim. At a certain part in class she had declared that her biggest fear was falling over. Awesome! She has brought to the foreground her deepest fear. So what is the next thing to do but face it head on. So me and another student/friend of mine, who is a yoga teacher too, assisted her in doing a handstand dropping back into a backbend.

Was there hesitation from her? Absolutely. But in her facing her fear and going for this (which was supported big time with 2 trained spotters) she cracked a reality that she had been believing for so many years. That if she fell over in a handstand she may die (ok, maybe a little exaggerated, but you may totally get my drift).

After finishing her handstand drop back we gently assisted her back to the floor and she rested on her back. In that moment she began weeping. It was the most amazing release of fear from her body and to witness it was magical for everyone of us in the yurt. It lasted about 30 seconds, and on the other side of that emotional release she stood up with a lightness and a brightness that was inspiring. But she topped that glow when she finished our last rounds of handstands that day, solo in the middle of the room, with not one, but 2 rocking handstands!

Dream, Take Action, Achieve!

What is so beautiful about this to me is that she could easily, like so many people do, given up on her dream like 20 years ago. Wrote it off because she was too old, too scared, or bought into a belief that it really wasn’t that big of a deal. But the truth of the matter was that there WAS a burning desire for her to learn this and she put the excuses aside, faced her fear and made it happen!

How many dreams have you let die because they didn’t happen for you fast enough, or when you were younger? I totally understand. I have been working on a new yoga and fitness website (online classes that you can do from home!) that I thought would take about 6 months to create and it has been 1.5 years now in the making! Holy smokes. However I know that I know that I know if I don’t give up, my dreams of how I may best serve this planet will come to fruition in ways I can not imagine! (With mercury currently in retrograde, I am feeling the launch of my new site will be Nov. 11, 2013!!!!)

How will Kim inspire your life or your practice? Please share with a comment below and may you go courageously in the direction of all your heart’s deepest desires.

Inversion Workshop On Kauai

Oh, I almost forgot to mention I am leading a yoga inversion workshop (handstands, forearm stands and headstands) on the north shore of Kauai this Sunday, Oct. 27th. Pre-registration required. Contact me at 808-351-4958 to come play and expand your universe upside down!