After endless rounds of Surya Namaskar, I am seeing all the so-called basic yoga postures in a
different light. We often can’t help that our bodies have ‘muscle memory’ and have automatically
learned certain things from our past experiences, but I am starting to recognise that we can
choose how we act based on how our bodies feel and we can choose to unlearn and to practise
new behaviours.
Headstand (Sirsasana) was like the first inversion that I nailed without supervision. I basically
learnt how to balance in a headstand by mimicking what I saw in that perfect instagram shot and
I always got into it via kicking or tucking my knees before floating up. In one of our inversion
classes, we were taught Pike Headstand. No matter how hard I have tried, my body refused to
pike into the headstand.
I thought that unlearning my conditioned way of getting to a headstand and relearning how to
uncover a pike headstand is an effective way to cultivate self-knowledge (Svadhyaya). In order
to transform, I need to identify and acknowledge my old habits that are ultimately not serving
me. This process could also be applied to my daily life. We are ever changing on both a
physical and emotional level, therefore being fixated upon one way of practising will not work
out. I shall continuously unlearn things that I was taught about who I was supposed to be and to
relearn the real me in the present time and space.
Krystal
Feb-20 Weekend YTT
