“Train your mind to see the good in every situation.” — Kushandwisdom
I can tick off a list as long as your arm the things I’ve hated about the coronavirus quarantine: wearing a mask, not being able to get my hair cut/colored, not being able to do hot yoga at the studio, not going to restaurants, working from home, blah, blah, blah. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the good things that have come from this: spending more time with my husband, using Zoom to talk to family who are too far away to be here even if there wasn’t a pandemic, learning to Facebook live a yoga class, appreciating some of the aforementioned things that I once took for granted. One of the best things though, is that my handstand is now better than ever.
That’s right, better than ever. Not only do I now kick up almost every time I try, but I’m actually getting hang time and holding for SEVERAL SECONDS! Whoo-hoo! Still no straight line, mind you, but thanks to being quarantined, I, April Nading, am kicking up into a handstand and holding it! Granted it wasn’t the quarantine itself that brought about my handstand improvements, rather, my use of the extra time that came as a result. I’m not driving a half hour each way to and from work — that means an hour more a day I can spend on handstands. And since I’m not currently teaching 75-minute yoga classes several nights a week — like I did pre-quarantine — I have even more extra time to work on my practice.
I’ve been using this extra time wisely. Handstands for at least a half hour in the morning instead of my usual 15 minutes; and sometimes an hour in the evening instead of only one or two kick-ups. And you know what? Practicing longer, and more often, makes you better! I know it’s a shocker, but it’s true. Practice, combined with determination and a burning desire to do better than you were doing before, is truly a recipe for success.
And I couldn’t be happier. This was a journey I began seven years ago when I couldn’t even kick up at the wall — never dreaming it would take so darn long to achieve, and never imagining just how frickin’ great it would feel when I finally did it. Yeah, I’ve wanted to give up, and have even second-guessed myself many times asking, “Who, besides another handstander, really cares if you do a handstand?” or “How does this help you in life?” or after my foot laceration from falling in handstand — “What’s the matter with you?” But I kept at it, and here I am, seven-and-half-years later doing it!
Choose your challenge my friends. Use this quarantine time and commit to making it happen. Even if it takes you five or seven or 10 years later to finally do it.
Thanks for reading this post! Please share with others if you like what I wrote.
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