Saying “yes” while doing a handstand

2026-08-25

It was Monday earlier, and that means I do “hard stuff” during ROMP¹. Big physical challenges, and training that wipes me out. Once it’s done, the rest of the week feels easy by comparison.

My recent “hard stuff” has been challenging all my trauma and fear about doing handstands. While I normally train handstands against a wall, the “hard stuff” day means I do a handful in the middle of a room without any spotter or safety net.

For me, these middle-of-the-room handstands are so intense that I usually can’t make a sound. Sometime the entire experience can feel a little grim, as I silently challenge both my body and the little lizard that lives in my hind-brain.

Tonight, the mood was good in the theater where we train. The work was going particularly well. Each one of my attempts reached that magic spot in the air, where there’s a “floaty” feeling that’s both exhilarating and scary.

On one attempt, as I reached full extension, I calmly said the word “Yes” out loud.

Even if you discount the fact that I was offered a glass of water, it’s a perfect first word.

Life, arguably out of necessity, teaches us to say “No” early and often. It’s powerful, because it stops everything.

The word “Yes” feels like the (irony intended) total inversion of that idea. It doesn’t feel particularly powerful, and yet it makes things go.

One of my teachers described the clown’s mental state as “turning everything inside-out and upside-down”. I think she would be pleased to know that I turned my staunchly-embedded “No” upside-down when I finally had a moment to breathe in an extremely literal version of that topsy-turvy state.

I got my glass of water, too.