68 YOGAJOURNAL.COM YOGA TODAY
When you come out of Sirsasana and
sit up, you should feel a peaceful, focused
sensation in your brain and nerves. Your
hands should be calm and steady. If they
are not, you have stayed too long, worked
incorrectly, or worked too hard. Ask a
teacher to check your pose to see that
your head and neck are in the correct
alignment and that your shoulders are
lifting and widening properly.INVERSIONS IN PRACTICE
Now that you know how to do the royal
poses, how do you fit them into your
practice sequence? Because it cools the
body, Shoulderstand should be done
after Headstand, which warms the body.
In Sarvangasana, the back of the neck is
released and the vertebrae are extended,
releasing any tension and compression
in the neck that an incorrect Sirsasana
may have caused. In a well-rounded prac-
tice session, Sirsasana should come after
standing poses and before other intense
work such as deep backbends and twists.
Sarvangasana comes at the end, before
Savasana (Corpse Pose). How long should
you hold the poses? The rule of thumb
is to hold Sarvangasana twice as long as
Sirsasana, yet not to strain. Work with a
teacher to find what’s right for you.
I hope these words have encouraged
you to begin a lifelong practice of these
magnificent poses in a way that is both
safe and beneficial. In doing these two
inversions, the king and queen of asanas,
you will be experiencing the best of yoga.
May your work help you discover the fra-
grant sweetness that is, after all, your own
inner essence. ✤Aadil Palkhivala is the founder and director
of Alive and Shine Center in Bellevue,
Washington. For more information about his
teaching, visit aliveandshinecenter.com.(You can allow your head to rest on a block
as you do this work.) Check to see if your
shoulders are below an imaginary line
drawn between your wrists and your but-
tocks; if so, you are ready to go on.
Learning how to set up your arms and
head is the next step toward Sirsasana.
Interlock your fingers and thumbs on the
floor in front of you. Keep your wrists
as far apart as possible and your elbows
shoulder-width apart, so that your inner
elbows and inner armpits form a square.
Place your head against your wrists and
thumb mounds; your head should rest
on the floor at your fontanel (the spot in
front of the crown of the head) or slightly
in front of it. You can find the fontanel
by feeling for the big bump on the top of
your head and then sliding your fingers
forward; you will feel a valley (the fonta-
nel) followed by a second bump.
If you have stiff shoulders and a
rounded upper back, try a Sirsasana
preparation (figure 2, right) with firm
pads against a wall. This helps to flatten
and open your upper back, create a soft
neck, and encourage the sense of lift in
your shoulders that is necessary for doing
Sirsasana correctly. Set up your head and
arms with your knuckles touching the
wall, then walk your feet toward your
arms and straighten your legs. Press your
wrists down and try to take your shoul-
ders off the pads; as you do so, you should
feel your head lifting off the floor.
As a beginning yoga student, you
should have 90 percent of your weight
on your forearms and 10 percent on your
head. Many beginners find that Sirsasana
is no longer scary when they realize there
is very little weight resting on their head
and neck. As you evolve in the posture,
you’ll put more and more weight on your
head un til eventually nearly 100 percent
of your weight is on your head.
The next step is Ardha Sirsasana (Half
Headstand; figure 3, right). There are no
balance issues in this preparatory pose,
because the arms are on the floor and the
feet are pressing against the wall with the
legs parallel to the floor. Kneel with your
back to a wall, and place your arms on a
sticky mat set a leg’s length from the wall.
Interlock your fingers and thumbs, place
your elbows shoulder-width apart, bring
your fontanel to the floor, and make sure
your head is not tipped or twisted to one
side. Lift your shoulders, moving your
shoulder blades up and apart like water
flowing from a fountain. Then slowly walk
your feet up the wall until your thighs and
legs are parallel to the floor. Hold the pose
for about 30 seconds; come down. If you
were able to feel your shoulder blades
move up and away from each other in the
pose, you are ready for Sirsasana.
To move into the full pose (figure 4,
right), set your sticky mat next to a wall
and place your knuckles next to the wall,
following the same setup instructions for
the head and shoulders. To come up, bend
your legs and gently jump both legs up and
land with the soles of your feet touching
the wall (figure 4, inset). Straighten your
legs one at a time, pressing them together.Headstand tips
KEEP YOUR elbows shoulder-width
apart. Most people spread their elbows
too wide, which forces the shoulder
blades toward each other and cramps
the upper back and the neck.
YOUR SHOULDER BLADES should
be constantly lifting and spreading
so that the bones of your neck drop
toward your throat.
MAKE SURE your wrists do not lift
off the floor.
ASSUMING THAT your neck is
healthy, you should be balanced on
the fontanel or slightly in front of it,
not on the crown of your head.
IF YOU FEEL like you are going to
fall, remember that the less tense you
are as you go down, the less likely
you are to hurt yourself. I always tell
my students to pretend they have no
bones as they go down!