Sandra, 69 years young
After teaching a workshop in Vancouver, a young, wide-eyed, woman rushed up to report that after she practices Yoga she feels headachy; energy gets stuck in her head. She asked me what to do. I told her to do the Shoulderstand.
She said, “What’s the Shoulderstand?” Shocked, I got down on the floor and demonstrated the Shoulderstand. Others hadn’t heard about it either.
Upset about this I made a video on the Shoulderstand—and its’ accompanying asanas, the Plough and the Fish—so the important information on these amazing asanas wouldn’t get lost. Everything I knew about them went into these videos.
The Sanskrit name for Shoulderstand is Sarvangasana. “Sarvang” means WHOLE. Shoulderstand bathes your WHOLE body in Prana, the energy medicine of Yoga. Prana moves down, into your body (not stuck in your skull!)
Prana in your body quiets your mind. The quieter your mind, the more relaxed you feel, like after great sex. And, like great sex, Shoulderstand takes the stress out of your face, relaxing wrinkles and creating a glow.
The Shoulderstand stimulates your pineal and thyroid glands. Mystics refer to the pineal gland as the “soul” of the body as, they say, it receives the spiritual light.
The pineal gland is associated with darkness and light and is lauded for its production of melatonin, which is essential for sleeping deeply.
The Shoulderstand creates more space for your thyroid gland by relaxing tense shoulders, rigid jaws and tight throats. Then your thyroid gland functions more efficiently and you are neither too “hyper” or “hypo”.
To stimulate your thyroid and pineal glands the weight of the Shoulderstand needs to be on the occiput (base of your skull.) This creates a Yin or relaxing effect in your body.
If the weight of the Shoulderstand is not on your occiput—due to being practiced up on blocks or with blankets under the shoulders—the weight rests higher up on the skull. This is dangerous as it compresses your cervical spine and, instead of activating the pineal gland, it now activates the pituitary gland, creating an overabundance of Yang or stimulating energy.
Every asana (Yoga position) is a vehicle of reception. The Shoulderstand delivers us Tranquility. That’s why I nicknamed it the Tranquility Position.
Like a great work of art, it has survived over centuries of time. It will continue to survive because the Shoulderstand:
- Drains tension out of your shoulders
- Lengthens your cervical spine (neck) eleviating the dowager hump
- Lengthens your arms
- Creates natural anti-depressants, with no side effects
- Boosts your immune system
- Releases melatonin for deep sleep
- Balances the thyrod gland
- Releases your breath, so you naturally breathe deep and full
- Benefits menstration, peri-menopause, and virility
- Actvates your “third eye”
- opens you into your unconscious and higher mind, by activating the feminine (Yin) aspects of your nature