3 Yoga Poses That Have Completely Unexpected Mental Benefits

Although I've been practicing yoga for a decade, I often shy away from more advanced poses unless I'm feeling unusually ambitious. I rarely do handstands, and I even skip crow pose half the times my teacher suggests it in class. Most of the time I'm convinced I won't be able to do these poses, so why bother? But a recent conversation with Jordan Younger, also known as The Balanced Blonde and author of Breaking Vegan, got me thinking: Maybe those intimidating advanced poses are worth it.

Why? They have some awesome benefits, and as Jordan pointed out, the intimidation factor is often in our heads. "There are so many advanced poses we can challenge ourselves with that people just assume they can’t do because they’ve never done it before," she told me. "Or maybe they've just never tried them. But they're worth trying. You can use the wall! Hold each of these poses for 30 seconds and you'll feel a huge difference."

I love forearm stand. To come into it, just come onto your forearms, walk your feet in like you’re in dolphin, and kick up into forearm stand. It’s such an energizing pose. I do it if I’m feeling really stressed or panicked. Just going into an inversion like that is so good for stress release. I do them all day long.

People think they can’t do this one, but most of the time they can. You don’t have to fully bind behind your head, but you can come into pigeon, bend your back knee, and give yourself a little thigh stretch. I love this pose because hip openers are so good for stress release and emotional release.