Arm balancing postures? They’re all the same thing. 

Once you fly in one, you usually can find flight in them all. 

Because even though the body is making different shapes in each one, the same 3 rules apply to this group of postures over and over again.

And, arm balancing poses teach you how to fly, not only on your yoga mat, but in your life.

Let’s dig into this thought.

First off, here are the tried and true rules to flying in an arm balance:

1. Hands on the floor, fingers down.  

2. Stack your elbows over the wrists.

3. Look forward, not back.

Yes, I could be WAY more technical here. I know that. 

But, if I had to tell someone one how to fly in their first Crow Pose with as little words as possible, this is what I would say.

Because we make things so complicated. Have you ever noticed that?

When a yoga pose is something we deem as “difficult” or “advanced” we love to make it more than it is.

We can write a doctoral thesis on each posture to qualify why it has yet to happen within our yoga practice yet.

But, just because it’s difficult, doesn’t mean it’s not simple.

And, life is the same way.

When you boil down what it takes to achieve your goals in life, the same rules arm balancing rules apply:

1. Get your hands on the floor. Meaning take the first step. Whatever it is.

Send out the resume. Go on the date. Start the business. Take the yoga class with the teacher that scares you a bit. 

2. Stack your elbows over the wrist. Meaning feel the fear and do it anyway.

Because when the elbows stack over the wrist in an arm balance, that’s when the brain freaks out. 

Your feet actually feel light to the floor and all sorts of warning bells sound in your head.

When you do something you’ve never done before, you are reaching to become someone else, someone MORE.

And, the body really doesn’t love to change. It loves where it is. 

So, you have to be more than your body and move through that feeling of abandoning the old you.

You have to stack your elbows over your wrists.

3. And, our last step, look forward.

This is actually the hardest step for so many of my students when it comes to arm balancing postures. 

We want to see what’s happening with our body.

We want to seek comfort in knowing without a doubt everything is going to be okay, so we look down or at our feet.

But, flying in an arm balance for the first time and hitting those huge goals in life?

You have to trust. You must have faith.

As you so often see on memes on social media, “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.” This quote is popular because it’s so, so true.

If you have a goal or a life change you’d like to make, you must have super clear, undeniable faith that you were led down this path for a reason and stick to it.

So many people give up on yoga when they realize it’s going to take more than a month of classes to achieve their first arm balance, inversion, or even Full Camel Pose.

And, so many people quit their big dream for their life right before it was going to be realized, right before they were going to be standing in the accomplishment of it.  

So, promise yourself to keep going. And, keep after whatever that dream of yours is.

Take the lesson from your arm balancing practice and apply it to your life. The lessons are there for a reason. 

YOU are here for a reason. So, go get it!

Big Hugs,

Tori ♡