It’s snowing like crazy here in Chicagoland, so I decided to try some snowga for the the first time. What better time to take some lovely snowga photos than in the middle of a nice snowstorm?
Of course I had my mind set on a balancing pose. I put on my snow boots and trudged But the moment I started to grab my ankle and kick into my ankle to come into Dancer’s Pose, I felt the unevenness of the snow beneath my standing foot. I did my best to clear myself a flat spot, but no matter what I did, I never felt steady.
After struggling for about a minute, I had to stop and reevaluate how I was going about getting into my pose. My struggling to force the post was only making me feel more unsteady. I stopped, slowed my thoughts, took a deep breath, and worked on finding a place to focus. Clearing my mind allowed me to tune in to what my foot was feeling and work along with what I was feeling instead of against it. Taking a deep breath, I finally found enough steadiness in my standing leg to come up into the pose.
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As I was downloading the photos my husband took to my computer, I got to thinking about how my snowga experience was a really good metaphor for life and finding balance. We often find ourselves on unsteady ground, feeling like we can’t find good footing. We may stomp our feet around and try to change our surroundings, but ultimately the ground is still uneven. Instead of fighting that unevenness, we can always pause, take a deep breath, find our focus, and use that focus to find balance.
How do you find balance?
Have you ever tried snowga?
Favorite balancing yoga pose?
I thought about doing a snowga pose for my first day of the prana take the leap 30 day challenge. But after running 10.5 miles in the blizzard this morning, I couldn’t bring myself to head back outside. Maybe tomorrow…
Oof, I can totally understand that. You’ve been bad@$$ enough for one day. 🙂
LOVE your snowga pic! I did my yoga in the hot studio today (I know…what wus…ha ha!) but I did do a really fun snowga sequence with the kids yoga class I teach a few weeks ago. It was adorable. Stay warm!
Thanks! Hey, hot yoga is tough–you are not a wuss! Snowga with kids must have been cute overload! How fun!
If it hadn’t been so windy downtown that I could barely move through it, snowga might have been fun! Love the pictures and want to see more!
Yeah, the wind was brutal. I took my photo earlier in the day before it picked up in the suburbs, otherwise I probably would have been blown over!
I have never tried snowga! We have over 2 feet outside right now so it would be interesting 🙂 I think my favorite balancing pose is tree pose. Balance is not something I’m good at – literally and figuratively. I’m so excited about the take the leap challenge because I need something to remind me to practice yoga more often.
Balancing is so tough. A lot of it really is mental–some days it’s so easy and others you fall over almost immediately. Good luck with the yoga challenge! I hope you get a lot out of it!
hahaha snowga…cute.
I can’t take credit for the phrase, but it is a lot of fun!
What a fun idea! At least if you do fall, the snow is there to catch you! 🙂
Indeed!