There are numerous articles and books on the power of visualization in sports psychology, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise how well it worked for me with this pose. The best part of this process is how easy it was to implement and how it worked almost instantly. I thought if I shared the process I went through that it might help someone else, so here goes.
This pose is chin stand - and the only parts of my body touching the ground are my chin and my hands (most, if not all of the weight of my body is in the hands - placing the chin down just sort of helps you balance). Anyway, I've wanted to do chin stand for a while but something was holding me back from trying. I knew that I had the strength and ability to do it, but I just couldn't seem to get myself into the pose. What helped me most was visualization. I think a lot of people get caught up in how difficult certain poses look, but I think if we put that label aside and use visualization, poses that we never dreamed of ever being able to do would become accessible.
1. Let go of preconceived ideas
Confession: I avoided chin stand for the longest time because I don't like how it looks on the neck. I mean, if I hadn't told you that most, if not all of my body weight are in the hands, you would've thought that the chin is holding a lot of weight, right? That's kind of scary if you think about it that way - the way the neck really shouldn't be bent very far back and how it might hurt to have weight there... but the fact is, these fears are all made up. Since there's little to no weight in the chin, we can forget about our imagined fears.
As for difficulty - I think the best thing to do is to stop looking at things and saying, "That looks so hard." Immediately that just reaffirms that it's out of your reach. Let that go. Stop labeling. Everything is within your reach if you approach it from the right perspective.
2. Visualize
I know it sounds a little out there to visualize your best self creating the pose you want, but relax. There's no need to sit under a bonsai tree and light some incense in a far off land. Do it from your desk, your bed, wherever. Keep it simple. Visualize your body physically getting into the pose, holding it and breathing in it, and then getting out of the pose. You might actually feel the muscles you'll use begin to engage.
Chin stand becomes bow pose
3. Set the foundation
Now that you have a completely clear mind and you've visualized yourself in the pose- make sure you've got the foundation for the pose you're attempting. Be realistic about your flexibility, your strength, endurance and mental focus. Find the perfect blend of dedication, determination, and being gentle with yourself. Then, look at the pose and see if you can mentally rotate the posture to be in a way that is accessible to you. For example, if you rotate my chin stand picture so that my stomach is on the ground, you've sort of got a bow pose variation. Can you physically do that pose? If you've got the flexibility for that, try some arm balances and see where you're at with your arm strength. Experiment with putting your chin down. Close your eyes, and visualize your body in the correct position, and then try it.
I hope this helps!