Practicing yoga backbends is a great way to change your perspective – and your mood. Rejuvenating and invigorating, backbends are often considered the “espresso shots” of yoga poses. Backbends open your heart, making them a great way to connect with your emotional body, helping you to heal and celebrate simultaneously. By energetically breaking open the front body, this category of postures gives us the ability to move through emotional and mental blocks.

The emotional body isn’t the only one to benefit. Most of us spend much of the day leaning forward, whether working on computers, sitting at desks, or driving from place to place. This habit takes our spines out of natural flexion; backbends help to reverse this. Back-bending postures can do wonders when it comes to relieving back pain and neck pain. When practiced each day, backbends have the ability to transform your life.

Always allow the breath to be your guide, listening to when your body gives you the go-ahead to go deeper, and when it’s wiser to back off. And, remember, while backbends can sometimes feel scary, the benefit of working with them is breaking through to the other side of fear, discovering bravery, and self-confidence.