Turn your world upside down.
An inversion is simply put, any asana in which the head is below the heart. Down-dog, standing forward folds, legs up the wall, and happy-baby all do the job but it’s when you move towards headstand, handstand, forearm stand, and shoulder stand that the real magic happens...
Being upside-down has a multitude of benefits for the cardiovascular, lymphatic, nervous, and endocrine systems. Reversing blood flow is good for the circulation. Gravity will help the lymphatic system work more efficiently. Inversions can be used to stimulate or restore for a quick shift in energy and even increase mental function, concentration and memory.* Seeing the world from a different point of view, both metaphorically and literally, can help challenge old ideas and bring in the new. Difficulties and obstacles can be put in perspective and downsized. On an emotional level Inversions can balance your mood and on a mental level they can help to overcome fear or anxiety.
Find a new perspective.
Personally, above all the physical benefits of getting upside down, I simply love how much fun it is: unfiltered joy. The moment of realisation that you are actually up in a handstand (rather than just falling out of one) is the closest I can get in waking life to a feeling of flying. It is liberating, an embodied freedom. When you get inverted, it really feels like you are turning the world upside-down, defying gravity and the rules that say you shouldn’t really be doing this. We evolved to stand on our feet and the laws of physics keep us there. But when you flip that, you get the sense of breaking free from these restrictions. And when you find some control up there, it can genuinely feel like you are now in charge, setting the limits; an agent not just a participant. Yoga encourages us to recognise and move away from unconscious habitual patterns (kleshas). Inverting is simply another way by which to shake things up, get out of a rut, break from the norm, drop a cliche and surprise yourself.
Yoga may be considered foremost a contemplative endeavor, but the asana practice is also a time to be playful and light hearted. As we grow older, wiser and more socialized, we in turn become conditioned, confined and constrained by all the mores, laws and outside influences which we learn to conform to. Getting upside down can help reintroduce us to our inner child, inquisitive and unbound, playing freely before he’s learnt the rules of the game.
*Yoko Yoshikawa (Yoga Journal)