3 Surprising Ways Yoga Helped Me on My Ski Weekend -Part 2

Perhaps you read about our adventurous ski weekend in last week’s instalment. If not, click here to hear about smoothie disasters, whiteout conditions and how yoga played a part in all of that.

This week, I wanted to share another surprising way that yoga helped me on the mountain with long, heavy fibreglass boards strapped onto my wildly uncomfortable boots. 

Over the course of the last 4 years, yoga has played a significant role in my life. I’ve been on the mat daily for sun salutations and have done 3-4 longer classes each week. 

One of the things I love about yoga is that it helps you develop an intimate and embodied relationship with your growth edge. 

In any given posture/asana, we’re encouraged to go to the edge and melt into it. You never want to push through that edge or override pain. You just want to become familiar with where it is and see what lies just on the other side. 

Because I’ve been there so many times on the mat, I was pleasantly surprised that it showed up to serve me on the ski hill. 

Yoga's Surprise for Me

Towards the end of the day, after continued whiteouts, heavy snow camouflaging icy conditions and legs on fire from the first ski day of the year, Paul and I were decided whether or not we would do the ski out. 

Sunshine has a gondola, so that’s an option to get back down to the parking lot, or there’s a ski-out option that brings me many happy memories. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever taken the gondola down. The ski-out is like the cherry on top of a day in the mountains. 

On this ski day, however, thanks to my heavier-than-usual and somewhat painful equipment, I considered the gondola ride. On our last run of the day, Paul and I determined that we would see how we were feeling and make the decision when we got down to the gondola loading zone. 

Zoe and Oakley were feeling great so we said we’d meet them at the bottom. We rode up high into the clouds for the last run, tackled a black diamond where our eyes were pretty much useless thanks to the thick clouds and fog and carved our way down, one turn at a time. 

Halfway down the run, my quads felt like thick cords that had been wrung out from constant contraction. “Maybe the gondola?” I thought to myself. 

As we continued our descent, I checked in with my body with the reference of my growth edge. If I took the ski-out, did it feel like I was forcing through or did I feel like I was just at the very edge?

A New Way to Make a Choice

When I considered the decision from that perspective, I realized that I could definitely do the ski-out. Because I’ve become so familiar with what the growth edge feels like on the mat, I knew exactly what my capacity was and so down the ski-out we went.

I never thought yoga would come in handy on the ski hill and was so delighted to realize that my familiarity with the growth edge transferred into other areas of my life. I anticipate I’ll be able to identify it now in all sorts of situations to help make empowered and wise decisions. 

If something is not showing up in your life in the way you want it, it’s because it’s not embodied, meaning it hasn’t yet taken up residence as a vibration in your physical body. That’s one of the reasons I love Body Awake Yoga® so much. You simply show up on the mat, do the yoga and the embodiment is a happy byproduct. 

What Can Yoga Do For You?

There’s not an area of your life that won’t improve from this yoga style because, as the breath travels through the body in a mindful way, it creates space for more of what you want at a quantum level. 

Want more abundance? BAY helps with that. More joy? BAY does that too. More inner peace, better relationships, or increased fulfillment? It’s all there waiting for you on the mat. 

Perhaps you’d like to join me there. Click here to get free access for an entire month to a library with dozens upon dozens of yoga classes I’ve recorded over the last couple of years. And then watch your life blossom in both expected and unexpected ways. 

May you have an exceptional week where you connect with your growth edge and comfortably go just beyond with ease and grace. 

With spacious love and extensive courage,

Christina

>Creator of Courageous Self-Care

>Looking forward to giving some awesome sessions at the upcoming Teachers' Conventions in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton this month

>Feeling so proud of myself for finally, Finally, FINALLY deep cleaning my makeup brushes, juicer and washing machine this weekend. Oh sweet victory.

My beloved friend, mentor and self-declared president of both my kids fan clubs, Debra Poneman, has a new resource I’d love to share with you. 

Debra is known far and wide as a powerful and entertaining speaker. Personally, I’ve learned so much from her talks and continue to use her wisdom in my every day life. 

As Debra shared: 

Do you know what's the single greatest indicator of business and social success?

You guessed it. It’s how effectively you communicate.

Being a clear, effective and magnetic communicator can make a difference in every area of your life.

Whether you dream of being a professional speaker or just want to be more interesting and captivating in your daily communications, I can show you how.

___

Debra has created a Successful Speaker Checklist that you can download here. I hope you’ll take advantage of this informative and useful document. 

Plus, once you access the checklist, you’ll receive an invitation to be her guest at one of her upcoming free masterclasses where she will share her free upcoming masterclass: The 5 Secrets to Shining on the Stage and in Everyday Life.

Get your Successful Speaker Checklist here

The very first song I shared for the song of the week feature was from Billy Raffoul and I love his music just as much as ever. 

Here’s another song of his that I adore. It’s sultry and vulnerable and it makes me feel so awesome when I listen to it. 

It’s called Acoustic and I hope you love it too. 

Listen to Acoustic by Billy Raffoul on iTunes

Listen to Acoustic by Billy Raffoul on Spotify