Sirs = Head, Asana = Pose or Posture

Sirasana is an advanced yoga pose that requires strength and balance. It is considered as a king of all asanas as it is a pose which has numerous benefits and involves balance on the head/crown.

Since Sirasana is an advanced pose, you have to go step by step, mastering each step before you try the full pose. Even though Sirasasana is an advanced pose, if you do it step by step, you can perform the pose within a few days to a month. Here are the four steps,

1. Ardha Sirasana
2. Fold your knees and bring closer to your chest
3. Straighten the hips
4. Straighten the legs

Steps

Step 1: Sit in Vajrasana, next place your forearms on the ground while keeping your elbows a little in front of your knees.  Join your hands by interlacing your fingers, and place them on the ground. Next rest your top of the head on the ground, in contact with the hands. Try to have your top of the head touch the ground. Make sure your head is secure in your hands as your head should not move more during the whole practice of the asana.

Inhale, slowly raise your hips and straighten your legs, coming onto the tips of your toes while lifting the hip up, almost forming a triangle.

Step 2: Carefully lift the feet off the ground, bending the knees to the chest.

Step3: Keeping the knees bent and together, slowly straighten the hips until the bent knees are pointing towards the ceiling.

Step 4: Slowly straighten the knees, bringing the feet up. Remember to keep the weight on the elbows and breathe normally. Start with 5 seconds, gradually increasing the time to few minutes

While coming back, Slowly fold the legs and bring the thighs back to the perpendicular position.

Slowly drop the legs to the ground.

Tips

1. Tuck your t-shirt in your track pants as it doesn’t trouble you while you go upside down. Remove your eye glasses
2. On step 2 practice,

1. Do not try to ‘jump’ or ‘kick up’ and do not try to straighten your legs as you could easily lose balance doing this and fall on your back. Instead, lift your right foot to bring your right knee to your chest. Take a few deep breaths, when you feel steady, inhale and engage your core muscles.
2. In a slow, controlled, movement exhale as you lift your left foot and bring your left knee into your chest alongside your right.
3. Make sure while you are bringing the left leg up, hip and right knee should not come down .
4. Do not try to ‘kick up’ too fast, you will easily lose the balance. Don’t rush yourself, slowly practice it with a steady mind
5. Don’t go to step 3 immediately, practice step 2 for a few days until you have a good balance before you start step 3.

How to practice Sirasasana with the support of wall

1. Kneel down, interlock your fingers and keep it about an inch or two away from the wall on the floor. Do not keep it too close or you will not have room to bring your legs up, do not keep your fingers too far away from the wall or you will lose balance.
2. Place the top of your head to rest on your interlaced fingers, then raise your hip, walk your leg towards you and place your hip on the wall.
3. You can raise your leg in two ways

1. a) Raise one leg and bring it up to the wall followed by the other leg or
2. b) bend your leg at the knee and place the sole of your foot on the wall, Extend both your legs so that your bottom, legs and heel are touching the wall.”

1. Practice with the support of the wall for a few days and then you can try removing one leg away from the wall and then the other till you are confident to remove both legs away from the support of the wall.
2. To bring your leg down, you can put one leg down then the other (or) you can bend your leg at the knee and then the other and slowly bring your feet down
3. Gradually after few days of practicing, move yourself two to five inches from the wall and you will be able to do Sirasasana (Head Stand) without the support of the wall

Benefits of Sirsasana (Head Stand)

1. It relieves stress
2. Helps to remove toxins from your body
3. Increases concentration and focus
4. Improves blood flow and circulation to head and eyes
5. Strengthens shoulders and arms
6. Improves digestion 
7. Decreases fluid build-up in the Legs and feet
8. Sirsasana helps the functioning of the pituitary gland, which supports the functioning of all the endocrine glands. Thus, it also helps in increasing the height
9. Helps improve flexibility and balance