SUNDAY, SNOW, ETC.

Sunday went much as planned -- lots of snow shoveling. It feels good, tho. Especially if you have the right clothing, the right tools, the right attitude.

Attitude (especially when shoveling snow) is probably the hardest for me to maintain. As I shovel, it's easy to slip into the "why am I here doing this" (irritated) or "I'll never get through this pile of snow" (defeated) or "why didn't we buy the big, 'honker', snow blower" (back to irritated). Fortunately, that didn't happen yesterday.  By the time we got out to the front to shovel the driveway, the snow had stopped falling and the skies were beginning to break open occasionally with sunshine.  Notice, I said 'we' -- it always helps attitudinally to have help for this winter chore.

My attitude stayed open and even embraced the task of shoveling. I paused occasionally to look at the blue sky, look up at the mountains, enjoy the beauty of the snow, pet a neighbor's dog. That's very important - gotta look around once in a while, then move back to task. What else did I think about? Truth be told, I kept reminding myself of how good all this shoveling is for my arms, my legs, my core, my heart.

My ability to mentally shift attention from the task at hand to the benefits or scenery around me, comes in very handy in my yoga practice also.  When I'm teaching and asking students to hold something longer than they would like, I suggest that they shift their attention from the discomfort (I'm not talking pain here) to another part of their body or to their breath. For example, when teaching vascisthasana, negative attention often falls to the poor supporting arm. I will suggest a shift in focus to the upper arm - to pull themselves up and off the supporting arm as though they were reaching for a brass ring. I think it works; at least, it works for me.  Or, when holding vrksasana, students will be asked to look out the windows and up at the mountains - another distraction.

Not sure where I'm headed with this. All I can say for sure is that if I focus on the discomfort, I am not a happy camper; when I distract myself and focus on another part (visually, mentally or physically), I am able to continue towards the beauty result of poses, chores, whatever.

So, today?

• Chores at home
• Errands to run
• Yoga Center paperwork, again
• Practice
• Snow to shovel? It's in the forecast, we'll see

Have a nice Monday,