Beautiful surprise, salamba sarvangasana (shoulder stand)

I remember Neil challenging us in Thailand to stay in salamba sarvangasana for over 5 minutes.  He suggested we were sissies (or may have said it out loud in his tough-love style)... I hated it, but he did have a point, he made us work.

I am glad he did, because it was only after this challenge (and a long savasana (corpse relaxation pose) on that day of practice) that I understood how restorative the inversions are.

I find that when I stay in inverted poses for way over the indicated 25 breaths, with long deep breathing then it is easier to stay in savasana for the suggested 5 minutes for 30 of practice, which is at least 15 minutes for me.

In turn when I stay in savasana for the right amount of time my day unfolds much better, I am centered, peaceful, and the muscles do not hurt, which is so sweet.

Today salamba sarvangasana just came. As in when a dog chases its tale for hours only to finally sit down and find it next to him. I was there for about 25 long breaths and feeling...  good (!?), as in "I can stay here much longer",  really?  yes, really!

So I did.  I stayed probably for about 8 minutes.  Effortlessly.

Beautiful surprise.

By the way, the water color of the asana comes from the art page of Chris Carter, who has a whole section of yoga asanas on watercolors, nice ha?   she has more...  worth checking it.

p.s. On the subject of salamba sarvangasana, I just realized that "yogawithmichelle" just edited text from Iyengar Certified teacher Roger Cole and the right approach to this particular inversion, interesting, you can read it here.