Camel pose, or ustrasana in Sanskrit, is a back-bending pose that has great benefits for your mind and body, but it tends to stir up a lot of emotion with it. I started practicing yoga about a year after I became a mom for the first time. I thought I was just tired, but I didn’t realize that what I was battling was pretty heavy post-partum depression. My body would physically recoil every time I tried to get in this asana. It made me want to throw up at times. It made me angry other times, and sometimes I would begin to bawl—yup, right in the middle of class. The instructor was wonderful. We were assured that any emotion was welcome, and if we hated the pose, it was the body’s way of telling us that that particular pose is what we need the most. Now, after having dealt with the ugliness of post-partum depression that no one wants to talk about, it’s one of my favorite poses. Your body and spirit change moment by moment, day by day. Welcome where you are at right now. Ustrasana helped me open my heart chakra, which, once opened, allowed me to act out of a place of love and compassion toward my sweet little boy, instead of frustration and anxiety (Camel pose is great for that, too.). And I saw the change in my little man, too. We began to have better days together, and now, almost eight years later, he has become someone that has anchored me on bad days. Yoga gave me that. Camel pose gave me that.