Scorpion: flowing from the headstand

This is the version where u move into the scorpion from the headstand. This calls for some very subtle co-ordination, which may explain why u must  have done some hardcore yoga before trying this. Even instructors don't learn to do this pose, which may give a small hint of the fear and awe this pose evokes:)

From the headstand, you open the fingers, place palms flat on the ground, then drop the legs bent at the knees behind. U can see that this drop as to be really far behind. Simultaneously the stomach is pushed forward because the hip muscles are actively engaged in holding you aloft. See the feet, they have to be loose and flowing, like sensors that try to grasp the sense of where u are in space. It is an amazing pose. As I have blogged earlier, backbends (and in the scorpion you are combining a backbend with an inversion), are said to make you courageous towards the unknown (oh, wow, what a zone:) So, there is a softness and a hardness to it, muscles becoming taut, loose, to keep u aloft.

Advantages of this style:

• Here to get to the basic pose -- knees bent with legs behind, the back curving, the head lifting -- all involves subtle co-ordination. So, doing all that itself will get u out of the fear zone.

Difficulties:

• It is difficult to gauge the back curve. Most people think they have curved deeply, while in fact, it is rather mild. That will not get u up into the scorpion. The curve is what keeps u aloft ..
• Dropping the legs means there is a good danger of u falling back. Like it matters:) Am blogging later, soon, now, on that too, so u can see that is not so much big deal as we make it out to be...
• Bringing  the head back to the original position is difficult -- the fingers are still flat on the mat.
• Plus you need to simultaneously push the hips back (they were thrust in front, remember, for that curve? )
• Then the knees will not draw back fully to the chest, but will drop gently from midway.. which is ok, but still...