Yoga Health Secrets

Yoga for asthma, bronchitis, and hay fever

The second method is as follows. Proceed from the position in figure 26, but this time straighten your legs while keeping your feet against the wall. You will be in a kind of Headstand at once by this method but why I do not favour it as much as the other one is that in this position your spine is uncomfortably arched instead of being held naturally and because it shows quick results students tend to rely on this method and become so used to the support of the wall that they have difficulty, afterwards, in doing the Headstand without it. So really this second method takes more time in the long run.

The third method is as follows. Proceed from the hunched up half-way position and, instead of swinging your feet over to touch the wall, very slowly, half-inch by half-inch straighten your legs. You will wobble, you will fall all over the place, you will drop back to the ground like a stone and you will probably become convinced that you will never make it at all, but again take heart and keep practising. Patience is the only way and one day you will find that, instead of bouncing back to the floor as you expected, you will remain poised on your head and arms with your body as straight as a candle, as in figure 27, page 83.

I must warn you that, like so many others, when you first find that you can do the Headstand, you will be so surprised that you will probably overbalance and have to come down quickly out of sheer amazement. It is rather like learning to ride a bicycle. When you finally find yourself gaily pedalling along without someone propping you up, you look around, find you have left your friend far behind and promptly fall off in sheer horror. So while you are still flushed with your first success, try your Headstand again. This time you will find that you can control your muscles to such an extent that you will be able to rise slowly into a beautiful Headstand. There you are. You finally made it. Congratulations!

Remember that when you are practising do keep your body rolled up into a ball with your knees near your face both going up and coming down. When you can do a perfect Headstand it will be of more benefit to you to perform it several times a day for short periods, say five or ten minutes at a time, rather than to indulge in long spells of half an hour or more. There is some controversy on this point but I favour the ‘little and often* method as being not only more beneficial but also more practical for the business person or busy housewife. Hatha Yoga is nothing if not down to earth and practical.