It's all in your head!

Sometimes doing an exercise takes more mental toughness than it does physical fitness.

This is what I have been thinking over the past few weeks as I try to improve my handstand push ups.

Before starting CrossFit in May, I wanted to be prepared to do handstands. I always knew I was capable of pulling them off.  But while part of my brain was saying "piece of cake!", the fear of smashing my head would take over as soon as I stood in front of the wall to try to do a handstand.

I walked away from that wall more times than I'd like to admit because I was irrationally afraid of getting hurt. 

But then my mind wandered back to when I was a little Nadia Comaneci wannabe trying to learn how to do cartwheels. I would stand in a hollow body position, lift both my arms up in the air, take a peek at the floor, lift my right leg slightly for momentum and boom! I'd just go for it.

Sure, the first time I tried to do a cartwheel I thought of how I could smash my head against the floor if I screwed up, but I distinctly remember shaking the thought out of my head and just getting it done. I have never, ever gotten hurt attempting a cartwheel. Ever. And I still do them fairly often because they're so darn fun!

Back in real life, there I was, staring at the wall again, getting ready to do a handstand. "If I can still do cartwheels like when I was a kid, why on earth would I not be able to do a simple handstand against the wall?" I thought. Then I stood in a hollow body position, lifted my arms, peeked at the floor, lifted my right leg slightly and boom! I finally did a perfect handstand! I didn't smash my head, I didn't fall to the side, I didn't pull a muscle... besides the unfamiliar feeling of blood rushing to my head very quickly, everything felt just fine.

After I realized what a wuss I had been for not getting this done earlier, I began doing handstands as often as possible. As a result of all the practice, I no longer feel weird when blood rushes to my head and have been able to progress to handstand push ups. I am still working on lowering my head all the way to the ground (almost there!) and, now that I'm fearless, I know I'll get there soon.