This pose is for grounding the 🧠 and everything it controls, which is, well, everything. This means headstand grounds the body 👂👃🏽👅👣👁. It upends the way blood flows from the feet to the brain, empowering any stuckness in the seat of intelligence (cells, thoughts, tensions) to move out and away. The meditative harmony that prevails once you balance — which comes in part from how easy breathing is with the lungs turned upside down — has no parallel.

Headstand or #sirsasana has always been my favorite pose, after shoulderstand or sarvangasana. As I’m sure with you guys, when I first learned them I was like 😂🤔🤷‍♀️, but the embodied understanding of their benefits comes so quickly that it’s very normal to want to have them in your life regularly. I would super duper love to know from anyone what questions you have about sirsasana. I’m always game to teach it — in fact I do every single week in at least one or two of my @yogaworks_dc classes — so stop by for a class if you really want to know!

In terms of #smooththeslump, this pose is obvi a big one! If you’re afraid to do it or don’t have a teacher who can teach it well (most #yogateachers are not taught how to teach this pose for the balance, with an understanding of **how essential it is for you to PRESS your forearms to LIFT your upper arms to LIFT AND PRESS your shoulder blades**), then do pose #2 of this challenge, #downdogpose. It has comparable benefits.