I have always found toe-stand pose astonishing. It looks like levitation, implausible, absurd. Then a friend eased into it her first class, rising to prayer hands on both sides and exiting gracefully. I was and have been in awe of her. The pose was long unattainable for me because of torn meniscus in both knees. Just seating myself for it would have meant agony and damage.

But during my first thirty-day challenge last year, I healed my knees enough so that I could finally do hero (I started in a doggy-style crouch). For my second challenge, I decided to pursue toe stand. Every day I probed my limits and the secrets of the pose. Every day I fell.

The first teacher to aid me demonstrated the pose, achieving serene poise in a split second, revealing the first secret: a plumb spine, with a hint of pelvic tilt so that the coccyx points to the center of the earth. Next I learned to roll my shoulders back, stacking them over my hips, further plumbing the spine. Then I realized that my core muscles must hug the spine to help it stay straight up. Every day I would balance for a moment or two, but it was less real equipoise than a slow-motion moment between my hands coming up and my pose capsizing.

One evening, a teacher mentioned pointing the perched toe and engaging the perched-upon thigh. This was my eureka. Energizing my legs had never occurred to me, but I was immediately sitting on more than my teeny-tiny heel. I was sitting on an energy field spread throughout my legs; it was as palpable and large as the floor. Then I realized that the pose looks like levitation because those who manage in are in fact sitting on energy in mid-air.

I still mostly fall down. But I don’t care now. I possess the secret. I trust practice will win me this magic trick.

Namaste,
Yoga Lily