The Scintillating Conclusion to the 3 Part Series

…of 3 Surprising Ways Yoga Helped Me on My Ski Weekend

Although my ski weekend of early February now feels like ancient history, we have arrived at the final installment of I wanted to share with you about the wonders of Body Awake Yoga (BAY). 

As previously mentioned in Part 1 and Part 2, on our little ski trip, I was wearing new-to-me equipment, but just to be clear, the gear was anything but new. In fact, I was wearing my mom’s boots and skis that were made approximately 4 decades ago.

The skis are retro orange, white and blue Volkls that are so old they’re back in style. They are ramrod straight (no parabolic features in sight) and they weigh approximately the same as a fully grown St Bernard. 

The boots used to be white (did you know ski boots can fade if they’re old enough?!?) and the velcro straps are devoid of velcro. I had to tie them and tuck them in the boots!

Why didn’t I rent newer equipment from this century you might ask? Good question. I don’t know the answer to that one. I did rent a helmet though, because when these skis and boots were worn originally, helmets for skiing weren’t a thing. All you saw on the mountain were toques and free-flowing hair. The glory days…

Anyway, all this to say that my (mom’s) ski equipment gave me a lot of pain. My knees hurt because the skis were so remarkably heavy. My calves hurt because the boots were determined to act like cobras squeezing the life force out of their prey (my gastrocnemius and soleus muscles) and the outer edges of my feet agonized with every turn. I was certain I would get bruises (which I didn’t because there’s really nothing that could bruise on that outer foot edge).

Yoga Benefits on the Hill

Here’s where the yoga came in. Or at least what I learned from Body Awake Yoga. I didn’t do yoga on the mountain in ski gear. Which might have been fun, come to think of it. That's not me in the photo above. 

The main difference in BAY from all other types of yoga that I’ve done is that you use the mind to focus on the breath moving through the body. Doing so has a myriad of benefits, one of which is decreasing/eliminating pain.

Where Pain Comes From

All pain in the body is a result of stuck energy. Even if it feels like there’s a different, obvious reason for the pain (ie ill-fitting skis and boots), it always starts as something energetic first and then the body tries to get your attention through sensation. It’s quite magical when you consider it. 

If you don’t notice the subtle sensation at first, it amplifies, eventually turning into pain if that’s what it’s going to take for you to do something about it on an energetic level. 

With the pain in my legs and feet while skiing, what was really going on was that there was a need for me to do some extra grounding - to get out of my head and then get more connected with earth’s energy.

The most effective way I’ve ever come across to work with pain or discomfort is to follow the breath with the mind through the painful area. 

So, while I was skiing, I imagined my breath starting in the earth and then coming up through my feet and legs up to my hips and then going back down in the opposite direction, landing in the earth once again. 

As I skied, I breathed like that over and over again which may sound complicated but was totally doable. I intended that the grounded energy of the mountain was rising up through my body and that the stuck energy was being mobilized and then returning down into the earth. 

Although it may sound weird and kind of woo-woo-ish, I noticed immediate benefits. My knees felt better, as did my lower legs and feet. 

Occasionally, as the day went on, the pain returned (since I continued to wear the same gear) and I just started up the breathing again. It dissipated each time. 

Another Lovely Surprise

And get this… I thought for certain I would be extremely sore the next day. I thought my knees would hurt, that my feet would be bruised and that my thighs would let me know that it had been over a year since my last ski trip.

I was shocked when I woke up the next day with zero pain or stiffness whatsoever. “I’ll probably be sore tomorrow,” I thought because I’m more of a 48-hours-to-stiffness kind of person.

The next day, though, I awoke feeling perfectly fine in my body. Not the slightest trace of soreness in my quads. Not even a whisper of pain in my knees.

Amazing, right? I can tell you for certain that it was because of the breathing. Following the breath up and down my legs and landing it in the earth was extremely grounding. I was using my mind in the best way possible - to get energy moving through the body and tracking the sensations. 

In doing so, I managed to ground myself and slow down the busy-ness of my mind. Mission accomplished. 

So that’s the final way that yoga helped me on my ski weekend. It ensured I wasn’t in pain. Prior to discovering BAY, I never knew yoga could do that. What a gift to know that when you get energy moving in the body, it reduces and even eliminates pain. 

Want to try this breathwork for yourself?

As I mentioned in parts one and two of this mini-series, I have a gift for you. If you would like to encourage pain to be on its way by learning to breathe in a way that gets stuck energy moving, there’s a whole yoga library just waiting for you to show up and press play.

You can access said yoga library for an entire month for free by clicking here. I add 3 new classes every month so it’s always growing and evolving. Even if you’re not a yoga-super-fan (yet), it’s worth checking it out the library because so many good things can happen with BAY. 

You can even just sit there and imagine yourself doing the class and do the breathing and you’ll benefit. There’s really no reason not to give it a whirl. 

Click here to get your month of free access 

May you have a bright and sunny week, inside and out. 

With expansive love and surprising courage,

Christina

>Creator of Courageous Self-Care

>Something else surprising that happened from doing BAY is that I GREW! Half an inch! Now I’m 5’6! Who knew that could happen in one’s 40s?!?

>Planning a big announcement for next week - stay tuned!

I just finished a book a few hours ago that I LOVED. It was laugh out loud funny, I adored the characters and I could barely put it down. 

It was nice and light, which was just what I needed after reading a true account of wartime survival in Poland, Germany, Holland and Russia.

If you’re up for a very satisfying romance with delightful characters, get yourself a copy of Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. I found mine in a little library!

Initially, I was confused that a man would write such a forward-thinking feminist kind of book until I looked at the author’s photo right there on the back cover and saw that it was a woman named Curtis. That made more sense. 

In our amazing dream home, one of the delightful features is that the master bedroom and bathroom are wired with overhead speakers. We haven’t used it much, but more and more, my husband, Paul, will put on some cool music as we’re getting ready for bed.

The other evening, this song started to play and it has such a cool vibe that I started dancing as I brushed my teeth. 

The artist is Poranguí and the song is called Ganesha. Just see if you can listen without your hips getting involved.

Listen to Ganesha by Poranguí on iTunes

Listen to Ganesha by Poranguí on Spotify