This is a personal post, I’ll go further into why I wanted to create this blog post and video, on how to banish fear fast on the snow, with yoga, plus why it’s actually taken me a long time to get around to making this blog post.
Fear has many forms, fear of heights, fear of birds, some people have a fear of meeting new people, saying the wrong thing to someone or to show vulnerability.
The more I’ve delved into yoga, meditation and the wellness world I now realise, that we all have a lot more in common than we think.
That vulnerability is something that we connect with and that we all share very similar experiences. Its just that we spend a lot of time in our own minds, not realizing what others are going through.
Snowsports like Skiing and Snowboarding, are considered extreme sports. I’m sure you’ve heard of a couple of people who’ve had injuries out on the mountains, it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a pro snowboarder/skier, the mountains and accidents happen.
This isn’t a blog post to scare you, on the contrary this is a post to banish your fear fast on the snow and yoga can really help with this.
Well yoga isn’t just handstands, splits and getting your hands to touch the floor. Yoga has many forms, one of which I find the most effective is Pranayama.
Pranayama is essentially breathing, simply said it’s a way to move around the energy in your body, using the most basic tool we all possess, our breath!
Combined with a few yoga poses, this yoga sequence will help you if you’ve had a hard day as a complete beginner learning to ski or snowboard on the mountain. Learning something new is always difficult, especially as we get older, one of the main problems for people learning past their teens, is that the fear becomes really loud, as injuring yourself, isn’t exactly how you’d like to spend your winter holiday.
Mindset is very important, professional athletes will go into a competition thinking that they’ll win, or envision themselves winning. You can also use this mindset and see how this helps you while you’re on the mountain.
If all that you’re thinking is, I AM GOING TO HURT MYSELF AND DIE, you’re probably more like to hurt yourself than being able to glide down that mountain behind your friends or your instructor.
So when you feel that fear, come back to your breath, just like I mention in the youtube video. Breathe, then realizing where your thoughts are at, tell yourself a mantra, a sentence that’s reassuring like ‘I am fine’ or ‘I can do this’ and repeat those reassuring words to yourself, over and over again, until your ready to keep going again.
In the Youtube video, I talk more in depth about why I created this video. I had a little technology hiccup, so the 30 minute video is cut into two 15 minutes videos!
Part 1 – this video covers the story of why I’d like to help you also banish that fear fast on the snow. This trick is so good, it can be used anytime that you feel stressed and its totally free.
Part 2 – the second part of this video is a yoga sequence, to release that fear out of your body. So that you can calm not just your mind, but your body too. Yoga can really help you to release negative emotions and fear, as we tend to hold a lot of stress and tension in our bodies.
Here’s a list of the 10 yoga poses from the video:
Each pose requires about 10 breaths to get the full benefits of each of the poses.
This is the number 1 breathing technique, which will within a few seconds make you feel calmer.
Hold your right hand up to your face, placing your index and middle finger in the middle of your forehead. Your right thumb resting on your right nostril, the ring finger, by your left nostril. Close your left nostril with your ring finger, breathe in through the right nostril. Close both nostril holes, breathe out of the left nostril hole, while keeping your right nostril closed. Take another breath in through the left nostril, close both nostrils. Then breathe out of your right nostril.
Place your hands forward on your mat, bring your knees out, place your bum above your feet, feeling your back lengthening. Don’t worry if you can’t touch your forehead on the mat, just let yourself relax into this pose.
Sitting up, place your feet together, as far forward as you need, sit up as straight as you can, let your hips open and take 10 easy breaths here.
Start in a table top position, bring your right knee, in towards your right wrist, then your right food towards your left wrist. Sit your bum down slowly, then press your right hip back a little bit and the left hip forward. Stay as high or as low as you need.
Face down on your mat, press both hands below your shoulders, bring your chest up towards the sky, make sure that your shoulders are pushing away from your ears and more towards the floor.
Face down on your mat, press your forearms on the matt, elbows below your shoulder joint. Bring your chest up towards the sky, bring your shoulders down and away from your ears.
Facing up on your mat, lying down, bring your feet close to your bum, engage your glutes, press your hips up towards the sky and your chest up towards your face. Option to have your hands below your torso clasped together
Facing up and lying down, bring both knees in towards your chest, place your left hand on your outer right knee, press both knees down towards the left side of your body. Place your palm out on the right, in line with your shoulder and look towards the right hand with your head.
Lying down, closing your eyes, let yourself release any tension in your body, focus on your breath, as you inhale and exhale. Oh and don’t forget to relax!
Want to ride / ski better, for longer? Get access to free yoga sequences, to help you, warm up and relax before an amazing day on the mountain.