I'm Having an Affair

If you've been around a while or you've looked through my Flickr photos - you likely know that I am in a love affair with backbends. They're just super liberating and blow my world wide open. For the last year or so I've been flirting with dropbacks. Coming from a standing position in tadasana and dropping backwards into a full wheel or urdhva dhanurasana pose. I've wanted to do that for a very long time, but in the beginning my arms weren't strong enough - then my shoulders weren't open enough.

For a long time I practiced at the wall. I did dropbacks with a partner at Wanderlust and I've been psyched about the fact that I can totally do that. However, I am fully aware that I tend to be all about expansion - so I don't always ground and root my feet into the earth. So what's the most likely thing to happen in that case? If I drop back without rooting down - my feet aren't going to stay connected with the ground and I'm going to fall - and ugly.

I know how to root down. I've been practicing. I can bend backwards and keep my feet firmly planted. Now I just need to muster up the courage to actually Drop Back. It's 100% a fear thing now. Fear has it's place. Fear can be a useful tool - it's what led me to work on rooting down. I can't allow it to live in the forefront of my mind though - or I'll never show my full potential of dropping back.

Is fear (unfounded or not) holding you back? What are some steps you can take to overcome that fear and embody your fullest potential? Something to think about.