Upward facing backbends

The backbends in yoga are tougher.. in a forward bend often you can just remain in a pose and hold on,despite the pain. But in a backbend you feel you simply cannot hold on -- it is interesting because backbends are actually pushing into very important psychosomatic centers:

• Shoulders -- sense of "carrying the burden" of the world/ support
• fear centers -- nape of the neck
• Heart center -- nib of anxiety and sense of being unloved
• Hips -- forward progress in life/changing direction
• Hips -- groundedness

Seeing that a plethora of psycho-somatic pressure points are being tweaked, it is no wonder that backbends give so much trouble on the mat.

However, once you establish a comfort zone you will find two opposite things happen inside ofyou

-- You will become calm
_  You will be exhilarated

Usually most yoga poses can do one or the other --calm or exhilarate you. But these tough backbends, combine both in a double bonus:)

Happy sadhana!!