Benefits Of Shirshasana Yoga: Steps to Perform, Mental Clarity, Precautions and More

Pramod Choudhary February 7, 2025Posted in Online Yoga, Flexibility & Fitness, Stress and Anxiety

Shirshasana is a headstand yoga known as the king of all the asanas. This is because this offers numerous benefits, offering holistic welfare to practitioners. Conducting this yoga can be challenging, yet practising this every day enhances the agility of the body. Impacting strength and stability, the benefits of Shirshasana are immense.?

There are several variations of Shirshasana, like Eka Pada Shirshasana, Janu Shirshasana and more. Understanding and emulating this yoga pose can offer a long-term health effect.?

Importance of Shirshasana (Headstand Pose)?

Shirshasana is a headstand posture which requires concentration and balance. You cannot perfect the skills of Shirshasana at once, but with gradual practice, you can gain expertise in this yoga posture. In this inverted yoga posture, the practitioner needs to balance on their head solely without the support of your hands. The significance of this pose is to reverse the impact of gravity. This helps to redistribute the overall energy flow with an energised mind and create a sense of calm.?

Shirshasana is a powerful posture that combines core strength of the body, balance and concentration. Through enhancing circulation, and offering mental clarity, the practitioner can develop focus and attributes like calmness and patience.

How to Perform Shirshasana at Home in 10 Easy Steps

Here are the steps of Shrishasana you need to perform to attain the Shirshasana posture:

1. Sit with your hips heels tucked beneath your hips during the preparatory stage.?

1. Then bring your arms to the ground and align with your shoulder.?

1. Do not move your elbow and keep your fingers interlocked for additional support. This way your arms will form a triangle.?

1. At this point, you need to place your head on the ground.

1. However, make sure that the crown of your head is secured within the cup of your hands or you might end up hurting yourself against the hard floor.?

1. Then lift both your knees followed by your glutes above the ground. Gradually walk your feet towards your trunk.?

1. At this point, you are ready to lift your feet and the lower half of your body above the ground. Bring your heels to your buttocks and raise your legs.?

1. Inhale throughout the process so you do not feel suffocated or fatigued midway.?

1. Focus your mind and feel present at the moment. Feel the blood rushing gradually to your head and attain a state of relaxation.?

1. You can balance your body in this state for as long as you want. As a beginner, you might not be able to hold this posture too long, but gradually, with practice, you will get better. The estimated time is one minute for beginners to five minutes for experts.?

Knowing the steps to get out of the posture and release your body from Shirshasana is vital. The steps of the Shirshasana release involve the following:

• Fold your legs slowly and bring them close to your thighs. Now you are perpendicular to the floor.?

• Now gently touch your legs to the ground.? Drop the upright inverted posture at this point.?

• To gain steadiness in your body, at the end of every Shirshasana pose, you should get into the baby pose or Shishuasana.?

• Then, in some time, you can release your hands as well followed by sitting in the Vajrasana pose.?

• For a few minutes, you can rest in the corpse pose or Savasana before moving on to other postures in your session.?

Health Benefits of Shirshasana

Practising the Shirshasana pose regularly not only improves physical strength and flexibility but also promotes mental clarity and overall well-being. Here are some of the key advantages of incorporating Shirshasana into your yoga routine:

Boosts Mental Clarity and Improves Focus

Several factors influence brain functionality through headstands:

• Enhancing the supply of oxygen: Through increased blood flow into the head, the supply of oxygen is also increased. This aids in boosting cognitive function as well as helps one to develop memory.?

• Gives a boost to your mood: With the help of Shirshasana, one can increase the production of happy hormones, or endorphins. This helps to combat symptoms of depression, anxiety and any other emotional stress. Practising Shirshasana regularly also helps to maintain emotional balance.?

• Causes mind-body consciousness and awareness: To build and then maintain the state of headstand requires concentration and focus. This gradually teaches you to foster a sense of being in the present and attain mindfulness. Being distracted and procrastinating is a raging problem in today’s time where we have to do multiple things at once. Shirshasana can help to reduce distraction and help to remain focused on a single thing at a time.?

Strengthens the Core?

The benefits of Shirshasana include developing core strength gradually without putting yourself through intense hard-core yoga. This pose is excellent for a sturdy upper body and strong core. While performing this yoga, several muscle groups are engaged which gives stability to the posture.?

• Developing core strength: Attaining and then balancing the headstand requires you to engage your core strength. The abdominal muscles are involved in keeping you straight in the inverted style. This ensures that your midsection is stable and strong.?

• Strengthening upper body: Combining shoulders, arms, and back muscles, a headstand requires coordination of multiple muscles in the upper body. This will provide you with a better muscle tone in the upper body and create endurance in the lower half.?

• Helps in attaining an upright posture: We often struggle to attain an upright posture while walking, standing and sitting. You can take care of it by practising headstands regularly. Gradually the shoulders gain strength to support the entire body weight.?

Promotes Blood Flow in the Body?

Through an inverted posture, headstand yoga helps to drive blood flow towards the brain. Inverting your body to drive the circulation towards the head offers a greater supply of oxygen to the head region. The inversion also induces energy and helps effectively return venous blood towards the heart.?

• Improved circulation: In the upside-down posture, blood flows into the upper body region towards the brain, preventing fatigue.?

• Oxygenated blood to the brain: Through enhanced blood flow, more oxygen is supplied to the brain, which aids in building memory and enhances cognitive behaviour. This also aids in creating alertness in the body through a regular practice of Shirshasana.?

• Stimulates the lymphatic system- Shirshasana further helps to stimulate the lymphatic system of the body. The utility of this is that it detoxifies your body and removes the toxins produced in the cells. Subsequently, this gives a boost to your overall energy level.?

Helps With Anxiety?

One of the major benefits of Shirshasana includes its ability to reduce stress. Practising the steps of Shirshasana helps to deal with stress and anxiety due to the hectic schedule of life. The parasympathetic nervous system is activated through the inversion of the body. This helps your body to relax as well as unwind releasing stress and inducing a calming effect on the body.?

• Calms your mind down: The reason to practice Shirshasana mainly lies in calming the state of mind and creating a rhythm in your body. Through practising this yoga posture, one can create a sense of mindfulness and attention. There is a direct link between the mind and body. Once your mind is relaxed, your body will also acquire its greatest potential.?

• Balances different hormones in our body: With an increased blood flow rate to the brain, both the pituitary and the pineal gland are boosted further to produce hormones effectively. Thus, they regulate hormones for mood swings and stress during hectic times.?

• Relieves anxiety and tension: Moreover, this pose of Shirshasana releases the tension in the body. It relaxes the muscles and strengthens your shoulder bones. Apart from mental well-being, Shirshasana is also helpful for physical aches and releasing tension around the muscular junctions.?

Long-Term Benefits of Practising Shirshasana

If you are persistent with Shirshasana practice, then you will certainly notice the benefits of yoga in the long run. Although it aims for holistic well-being, this isn’t any magic. To reap the fruits of yoga, you need to be consistent and determined to perform it every day. Practising regularly can yield several Shirshasana benefits:

• Better digestion: By stimulating the digestive organs, Shirshasana helps to improve gut health. This contributes to overall digestive well-being. As the nutrients are absorbed better through this yoga, the overall rate of metabolism is also impacted positively.?

• Enhances flexibility of the body: Through regular practice of yoga like Shirshasana, one can strengthen their core and build sturdy shoulder muscles. Spines, legs and arms are also involved in this practice which become firm and steady over time.?

• Aid in respiratory and circulatory functionality: The headstand yoga affects both circulation and respiration, two key functionalities of the body. This contributes to overall better cardiovascular functionality.?

• Enhances confidence in one’s appearance: It’s not easy to master a challenging pose like Shirshasana in a few days. But with persistence, you will surely excel at it. Becoming good at something difficult gives you a boost of confidence so you can challenge adversities every day.?

• Create a hormonal balance: Through stimulation of the endocrine system, the yoga of Shirshasana can regulate the hormone production of the body. Functionality of the entire body is dependent on hormone production and with better regulation of hormones, our body and mind both feel calm and energized.? Start your headstand journey today! Explore our guided yoga sessions with expert instructors at FlexifyMe and elevate your wellness.

Precautions to Take While Performing Shrishasana

There is no way you can perfect the pose on your first day or a few more. So, do not overexert your body in the expectation to master the Shirshasana in a jiffy. Listen to what your body says. For instance, if you are only halfway through and find it difficult to continue, halt for the day and start afresh later.?

Exercise caution while practising Shirshasana because while inverting your body, the entire weight will accumulate on the shoulders as a result of which, you may hurt your neck due to excess weight all at once. Especially for obese individuals, one should speak to a professional before going ahead. Cup your head properly so you do not rest your head on the harsh floor.?

In this posture, there is a high risk of falling so pregnant women are advised to avoid this yoga pose. Kids below the age of 7 should refrain from performing this yoga because their skulls are still under development. Yoga puts pressure on the eyes and one with glaucoma should avoid this step.?

Conclusion

Shirshasana is one of the yoga postures which are the toughest to perform. Once you have mastered the skills to excel at Shirshasana, you will gradually observe the perks of practising this posture. You can perform Shirshasana anytime throughout the whole session, and the state of relaxation is almost instant as one performs this step. For long-term mental and physical well-being, it is essential to make a lifestyle difference.