Success!

I cannot express how excited I was when I was able to get up in the headstand by myself on Tuesday.  The biggest obstacle for me with the headstands and shoulder stands is fear because of an incident that happened when I was a kid.  I was quite the little daredevil as a child, and one day during gym in fourth grade, one of my friends asked me to do a handstand.  Never having tried before, I figured, it can’t be that hard.  Miraculously, I was able to get up on my first try and actually held the pose for a moment or two before my arms caved in and my face went crashing into the floor.  I ended up having to go to the nurse for busting open my lip pretty badly, but what scared me more was what happened after my head hit the floor.  In a sort of freak reaction, I attempted to turn my fall into a flip, but instead of saving my face from distortion, I ended up falling strangely on my neck and pinching a nerve.  For those who have never done this before, it’s a very strange and unnerving sensation.  At first it burns and then settles into an eerie sort of numbness, a kind that is different from when your foot simply falls asleep.  Being nine, I overreacted and thought I was going to be paralyzed, and although now I view that as kind of funny, I still cringe at the thought of doing any sort of movement that involves my neck.  

For this reason getting up in the headstand was a really cool moment for me.  It was a step towards conquering a fear I have towards my body as well as a step towards strengthening my neck and back.