An Inversion a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Today I read my monthly issue of Yoga Journal. One article encouraged people to practice daily inversions to assist in relaxation. Well, with 4 kids stressing me out much of the day, I knew this was for me. This afternoon I tried it while resting on our bed with my feet up against the wall (similar to photo). I placed a rectangular beanbag over my eyes because darkness increases relaxation and pushing down on the bones around your eyes triggers a reflex that helps slow down your heartbeat. Within the first 30 seconds of the inversion I noticed a euphoric feeling as the blood rushed from my legs to concentrate in my torso and head. I became very relaxed very quickly. I actually fell asleep within 5 minutes, waking 25 minutes later with my feet still propped against the wall. I brought my legs back to horizontal and rested on the bed a few minutes more and noticed a few things:

-my stress was gone
-My upper back pain was gone
-I felt like I had just worked out… endorphins or some other “good chemicals” were pumping through my body, helping me to feel really content and blissful
-I no longer had the craving for chocolate that I had most of the early afternoon; in fact, I didn’t really feel hungry at all

Needless to say, I think I’ll be doing this every afternoon before the kids get home from school. Late afternoon tends to be the most stressful time of day, so I’ll help myself out a bit with increased sanity and calm before the storm.

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An article from some experts says inversions reduce tension, improve circulation, accelerate cleansing of lactic acid from muscles, improve oxygen flow to the brain (and literally causing the brain to use more of its cells more fully), help the internal organs to stay in their proper place rather than “heading south” as they tend to do with age, and many more things too numerous to list here…