108 Days Upside Down: Teachings from Stillness by Jeff “KD” Meyers, MD · Illustrated by Jody Smith
108 days.
108 headstands.
108 teachings about finding your center.
You don’t have to practice yoga. And you definitely don’t have to stand on your head.
KD Meyers is the author of 108 Days Upside Down, which grew out of a 108-day headstand practice during a difficult season of his own life. He is a physician, acupuncturist and longtime yoga teacher.
Trained in medicine at the University of Colorado and in rehabilitation medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, he has spent more than 30 years helping people recover balance, strength and resilience, bringing together Western medicine, yoga, meditation and somatic practice. He teaches internationally and has co-directed Dharma Mittra’s “Life of a Yogi” Teacher Training.
Jody Smith created the book’s cover, its interior design and the 108 illustrations of animals, seekers, deities and other unlikely yogis turned upside down. Whimsical on purpose, so the wisdom never gets too solemn.
“I thought I was practicing a pose. Instead, the pose began teaching me.”
There are times when life turns us upside down before we ever choose to stand on our heads.
This book began during one of those times for me. I was feeling off balance, figuratively and at times quite literally. Work, relationships, responsibilities, the state of the world and the constant noise of everyday life seemed to pull me in too many directions.
I needed a way back. For me, one of those ways was yoga, and particularly headstand.
So every day for 108 days, I turned myself upside down. Not as a performance or a fitness challenge, but as a place to stop, breathe, find balance and see things differently.
From those upside-down moments came these teachings: observations, questions, reminders, and sometimes playful glimpses into yoga and life.
Come join me upside down.
— KD
Each teaching is one page, paired with one of Jody Smith’s upside-down illustrations. Read one a day, or open the book whenever you need a moment of clarity.
Notice the face. If our jaw is clenched, the mind is usually clenched too. One of the signs of real mastery is strength without hardening. A strong body, a soft face, a quiet breath — that combination changes everything. Yoga is not about looking intense. It is about becoming whole. It is about becoming integrated. Power and softness belong together.
A pose is not just something we do to the body. The pose “does us.” At a certain point, the posture starts talking back. It tells us where we grip, where we hurry, where we are afraid, where we are absent. The pose becomes a mirror. And if we listen carefully, it becomes a teacher. The question is not only, “Can I do the pose?” It is, “What is the pose showing me?”
One of the great lessons of yoga is this: your body often knows more than your mind. The ocean doesn’t have to remember how to make a tide. It simply follows a deeper intelligence. Your body is much the same. Stop trying to control every sensation. Instead, become curious. What happens when you allow your body to remember its own wisdom? That wisdom is closer than you think.
The wobble is not failure. The wobble is information. It tells us where attention is needed. If we judge the wobble, we tighten. If we listen to it, we learn. So much of practice is learning to receive feedback without shame. The body is constantly teaching. The wobble says, “Come back. Refine. Breathe. Be present. Pay attention here.”
In headstand, the head is beneath the heart. I love that teaching. The mind is brilliant, but it was never meant to rule alone. Sometimes wisdom begins when the head bows below the heart. This does not mean abandoning intelligence. It means letting intelligence serve love, presence, and truth. The heart leads. The mind becomes a beautiful instrument.
The teachings began on a yoga mat, but they are about the places all of us end up sooner or later:
fear, change, aging, effort, healing, attention, courage, joy and love.
These teachings aren’t just about yoga. They’re about being human.
Get a glimpse inside the book with eight illustrated teachings selected from across its 108 days.
Each offers a different perspective on stillness, awareness, and finding your center. Yours free as a PDF you can print or keep on your phone.
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A note on safety: please practice inversions only with proper training, preparation, and awareness of your own body.
©2026 KD Meyers. All Rights Reserved.