Why We Practice Inversions

By Victoria Andrews, Inner Fire Yoga Teacher

The practice of inverting our body in a Yoga posture is a beneficial and scientific way to counteract the rhythmic shifts in our mood and environment. Throughout the year, we are susceptible to a myriad of changes in our external circumstances, many of which affect us on a  neurological level. By allowing increased circulation to reach our brain, we effectively stimulate blood flow that supports and nourishes our most bioactive organ. 

We are composite organisms, not separate from our mind, and our Yoga practice very often reminds us of that interconnection. It is often said in Traditional Chinese Medicine that it is more noble to be of our  “heart mind” than only of our head. 

As Yogis, we work to override active thoughts that seek to dominate the way we feel about ourselves and interact with others. Beyond only waking thoughts, our mind is also influenced by such shifts as the availability of fresh air and sunlight,  seasonal and circadian rhythms, stress, our sleep patterns, and even our diet. 

Our body (and brain) navigates change either with support from our own adaptation, or with a physical response that overrides damage. A panic attack due to anxiety can be one way our system attempts to override or shake us from an out-of-balance nervous system, in the same way that seasonal affective depressive disorder illuminates us to our need to adapt to low light levels.  With this knowledge, we can start to measure the feedback from our postures as a way to develop our own techniques that help us combat the stress of any situation or environment.  

In Ayurveda, we call the seasons “Vata”, “Kapha” and “Pitta”. Where one of these “Doshas”  may predominate over a particular chapter of the year, they also cross over each other;  blending in a mix of elements. For example, the watery quality of Kapha mixes with the impending fire of  Pitta to make March and April weather. In September, we are in “Pitta/Vata” season, where the fiery energy of a hot summer starts to intertwine with the blustery and airy qualities of Fall.  

Inversions help us balance the intensely active energy of our minds during this time, harnessing both cooling and centering properties to help us keep calm and remain steady. 

As we come to understand the complementary reactions between “Yin” and “Yang”, Kapha and Pitta, Vata and the grounding elements of our Yoga practice, we can trace the tumultuous patterns that arise in our mind through sensations in our circulatory pathways throughout our entire body.  We are more than only feeling our energy as an esoteric principle governed by only the spiritual side of Yoga – we are energetically activating our “meridian” or “chi” channels, which correspond with the acupuncture pathways laid out by Traditional Chinese Medicine.  

When we experience an acupuncture session or explore acupressure points on our body through fascial release or cupping, we are complimenting all of the physical asanas in Yoga.  

Virabhadrasana II, or Warrior II, for example, allows us to build heat and strength, but we accomplish this by working with complimentary energies of both Yin and Yang: the back leg is our firm anchor, Yang, grounding through the outer edge of our supporting back foot, helping us stay focused and present. Our Yin is over our front foot, releasing into a deeper bend in our front leg by relaxing more into our hips. By keeping our shoulders relaxed, our breath naturally deepens us into the pose by nature of a steady exhale sinking us into our stance. As we add strength through our arms, reaching them purposefully forward and behind us, we activate through our pericardium meridian, which is associated with our heart. 

Our hips and heart are very Yin, but our determination to remain rooted and firm in our resolve to hold a Warrior pose is Yang. The energy that begins in the bottoms of our feet travels throughout our entire body to touch every major muscle, organ, circulatory and endocrine system pathway, leading all the way from our toes and inside of our legs, up through our kidneys and liver, up to the top of our head and back down. 

We can open our heart in more of a literal sense now in our backbends,  as we imagine our breath stretching pericardial fascia across our ribcage, every deep diaphragmatic breath allowing us to open more meaningfully into not only our poses, but into our entire sense of being and inhabiting our body in this world. 

The balance bestowed by an inversion at the end of a challenging “Yang” hot yoga class, is that it provides our nervous system with a sense of rest and reset. Noticing our breath rhythms after a period of time spent upside down allows us to recognize the power of calm breathing to reset prominent times of stress and anxiety off of our mat as well. This is why the postures of  Sirsasana (headstand) and Sarvangasana (shoulder stand) provide necessary relief after a hot class, where we direct energy through our legs, arms, hands, torso, and feet. 

The major points of contact we experience when balancing in inversions correlate to a relationship between the front and back sides of our body, the Yin and Yang meridian systems, Moon and Sun, and “Hatha”.  As we work to align in concerted balance with our hips over our shoulders and our head, we reconnect with the same meridian pathways experienced through reciprocal channels of energy traveling up the front body system and back down. 

While the Sirsasana (headstand) is Yang, we are drawing on elements of Yin to achieve a state of equilibrium in its practice. Our energy is directed upward, reaching out through our inner legs and toes, allowing our bones to support the foundational structure in a release into trust and “letting go”. When we can realize that we are supported by more than just our effort to “muscle” our way into the pose, our reconnection with the cooling sensations of this pose (deep peace and release through our neck and shoulders)  prevails.  

Sarvangasana (shoulder stand) perfectly complements the dualistic nature of headstand, and can be practiced as a preparatory foundation of self-awareness before headstand, or on its own. The nature of balancing on the pressure points at the top of our shoulder blades relates to our lungs,  pericardium, and heart. 

Our shoulders are integral to opening up through our hearts. When we slouch, hunch, or otherwise compromise the delicate soft tissue behind our collar bones, we effectively constrict and “pull” on the upper back and shoulders, eventually leading to upper back and even neck pain. Tucking our chin to our throat and holding steady with abdominal breathing, focused on the back channels of our lungs, helps soften any stress and tension that accumulates in our jaw or neck. 

A shoulder stand inversion also connects us with our neck “lock,” or Jalandhara bandha, associated with advanced breathing techniques that also help stimulate our thyroid gland in the same way that the subtle nature of headstand touches our pituitary and pineal gland connection.

The nature of shoulder stand and its practice is more introspective and Yin, but we can redirect these guiding principles into a Yang force of opening up through our heart and throat, leading to a more authentic sense of self-expression, and more heartfelt and revitalized self-awareness. In this way, the energetic concepts of a posture underlie the more physical and foundational aspects of each pose, resulting in sensory awareness that stems from our interconnection with our body as an integrated whole. 

If you want to learn more about inversion techniques and benefits, come to my workshop on Saturday, September 17 at the East studio, 10am-noon! Hope to see you there :)

Namaste,

Victoria