WHY HANDSTANDS MATTER LESS THAN DEEP BREATHS

This blog post was written by Hayley in 2021.

I’ve been practicing yoga for more than 10 years. I’ve been teaching for five.

I used to consistently practice and love (and sometimes still do: usually when I’m ovulating) the sweaty, heavy breathing and foggy windows of a vinyasa class. The push to achieve a particular asana. The way the room breathes together. The drive to stick my handstands or hold my bird of paradise. I was in my late teens, working in retail and this sort of practice gave me something to work towards. A goal-oriented way of moving. There’s still nothing wrong with that.

Except now, my life, my workload and my relationship to my body has changed so much.
I now know that I have internal seasons, phases of my cycle where I require deep rest; others where I require the freedom of intuitive movement.

My business is what requires push, and working toward a goal.
My nervous system is overstimulated by this fast-paced, modern world we have all co-created.
And amongst all that, we are living in a global pandemic.

Ten years might not seem like that long, but things aren’t as simple as they used to be.

So my practice needs to be.
A complicated vinyasa just isn’t it anymore.

What I now require from my practice is simply a quiet place to breathe.
Away from my phone.
Somewhere I can delve into my inner landscape and hold space for only me.
So that’s how I teach now. Slow, simple, and immersed in breath.

I still can’t hold a handstand. And that’s more than okay with me.
What I can do is sit in stillness, be quiet with my thoughts, and take long, slow breaths.

And that matters more to me.