Crowing From The Roof Tops

This year I vow to master The Crow

Um ....

This year I vow to master Crow pose

You’ll often hear yoga teachers introduce Bakasana (crow pose) as the “beginners” or “easy” inversion. For many reasons they’re not wrong: your body mass remains close to the ground lowering your centre of gravity, you progress in small stages with one toe at a time,  well, because Iyengar listed it as an easier posture (and that guy knows his sh*t!). For as many reasons, and more, crow pose is neither a beginning nor an easy posture and it is terrifying, and often times disheartening, for many students (including myself) to be told so.

When I started my first yoga teacher training I was by far the physically weakest, heaviest, least flexible and least practiced / seasoned of the group. Those things played heavy on my heart, I felt less than adequate and constantly told myself I would never manage certain postures no matter how hard I tried. The fun of partner yoga for one was on my list of “looks amazing but not for me” items, most arm balances and inversions went into the “yeah yeah I get what you’re saying but I’m not built that way” category and even chataranga fell into the box marked “sure, when I've started weight training”

I learnt to teach Crow as part of a Level 1 sequence, we encourage students to play and have fun with the feeling of being upside down and being on their hands, even if they are brand new to the practice. I really love that attitude of just giving it a go, and, if positioned properly it allows new yogis to feel like they’re not stuck on the D-team, just craving the day they are ‘good enough’ to move up a level. For me, it was empowering as a teacher, from an early stage to be given the tools to teach a posture I could not yet demonstrate – learning to rely on my words and encouragement to see student after student succeed. It was also empowering for my students to see a teacher fall and smile and keep trying week after week.

For my part I have never not tried, however, I do recognize my inner voice still screaming “okay have a go, but it’s not going to happen”. Physically I have changed; I’m more open, stronger and steadier. I have learnt to enjoy the challenges of new postures and look forward to practicing headstands, handstands, hurdlers, side crow and more, comfortable in the knowledge that I have so far to go. So I know my body is ready for Crow, but my mind has not been (a true testament to the power of positive – or in this case negative – thinking).

So here is my pledge – this year I am going to master crow. Who knows if my crow pose will look perfect, frankly, who cares! I will keep practicing until I no longer fear it. That is my commitment

And if, like me, you struggle with your “beginners” inversion – remember:

1. You can do anything you put your mind to
2. Crow teaches you the basics of core control, how to breathe upside down and how to face the fear of face-planting – but it does not have to be your first inversion, if you’re in a rut, try something else
3. No-one but you cares if you can do Crow or not, you get all the benefits of the arm work in plank pose and all the benefits of an inversion in any forward fold so do what you want to do, not what you think is expected
4. Come back. Let go for a while, play around elsewhere, and come back.

I’ll start a photo log of my progress so you can giggle along … heck maybe I’ll make it a video log  - would love to see you flying high too.