Backbends, aka Heart Openers, awaken your emotions and assess your flexibility. I never loved backbends. I always believed I had a flexible personality, but when I began fearing heart openers in my yoga practice, I knew I had some "stuff" buried inside. May be I silently fear change making me stiff rather than flexible.
The beauty of yoga is that it awakens any "crap" you've compressed over years. Whenever you feel challenged by a pose, that's your cue to look inside. My humble advice (inhale through your nose) is to practice with conscious compassion of the feelings that surface (exhale through your mouth), rather then push them away. Breathing will slowly release any tension, so you can be flexible on and off the mat.
