As the weather warms I can feel my body melting and softening. I am a warm weather creature and I’m feeling the call of the water. Being out in the water is a fondness I’ve developed as an adult.
Maybe it was the horrible swim lessons as a child or the grueling swim team practices in high school that soured my water experiences when I was younger.
But that is not how it has to be.
Life patterns can always be rewritten,
if you choose.
Our family got a tiny sailboat a few years ago and I felt like the Owl and the Pussy-Cat poem. Then a friend convinced me to take crew lessons and I loved being in the boat out on the water. The thing that struck me about being in a boat is that there is a cycle of effort and then you can also just glide. Just sit. Just be on the water.
Life is a series of effort and being. It’s the effort that makes the being feel so good. It’s feeling strong that makes it easier to know when to be soft and vulnerable.
When you’re solid, and strong and secure, in both mind and body, you have the confidence to relax and trust into just being.
So how to find that strong, confident feeling? Navasana (nah-VAHS-anna), that means boat pose. This is a pose that taps into your deepest core muscles. It’s a concentrated effort that you can build upon as your core strength builds. Try it at home with Lauren.
Be brave, get curious and begin where you are. The sweetness of just being will be worth the effort. I promise.You can even do a modified version of boat pose in a chair.
Be well…it’s a state of mind.