Cowgirl Yoga

This morning I did my daily yoga wearing a pair of cowboy boots.

This is not typical yoga behavior nor is it advised to march into your local yoga studio sporting your Frye boots and not leaving them by the door as is customary.

But I wasn’t in a yoga studio.

I was in my own home, and when I’m here, I get to make the rules.

I hadn’t planned on practicing in my boots. But the morning got busy with getting everyone ready for church and out the door. I normally do my yoga in the morning, but I figured today, it would just have to wait. I would get to it later.

But even as I made that decision in my head, I could hear myself whispering, “You know you’re not going to do this later. The day will slip by, and your yoga will fall to the wayside.”

Once I was dressed, I realized (unsurprisingly) that my daughters were nowhere near being ready. They needed more time, and now I had to wait on them.

With this small new pocket of time at my disposal I thought, “Well, might as well get some yoga in.”

One thing that I know about myself is that when I do my simple, short, daily yoga routine, I am MUCH better equipped at dealing with whatever the day throws my way. And whenever I do it, I am also more patient.

Since I was already annoyed at how slowly my kids were moving, I thought it best to try and get my yoga in to deter an anger spiral which I could feel was a distinct possibility.

But I was already fully dressed and ready to walk out the door. And because I am lazy and also didn’t know how much more time the kids would take, I didn’t even take off my boots when I began.

And you know what? It was fine.

It was better than fine in fact because it did give me more patience, and I didn’t get caught in an anger spiral.

It also reminded me that it is fine to do things differently, to shake it up, and to seize whatever moment you can steal to take care of yourself a little. Because who knows when the next opportunity will arise?

The point of this post is not to suggest that you practice yoga in cowboy boots. In fact, it’s a pretty silly thing to do.

You can’t feel the floor. Your toes are scrunched. Since boots have a small heel, you can’t possibility have the correct foot alignment which sets up literally all of the alignment in the rest of your body.

But luckily I am not a purist. And if given the choice between the boot yoga and no yoga at all? I’ll take the boot yoga.

We have to work with what we’ve got. If we wait for some ideal moment to do the things that keep us well, happy, sane, and healthy, we will most likely never get around to it.

I love my yoga. And I also love my Frye boots. Before today, I have never thought of them in the same sentence.

But life has a funny way of forcing us to deal with lots of incongruous parts in whatever way we can.

And that requires creativity.

It also requires us to be imperfect, and to let go of our own rigid perceptions about how we think things ought to be done.

I encourage you to be creative about how you meet your own needs and give yourself love and care. There is no single “right” way to do that. You get to make your own rules. It’s your party. And you can wear whatever kind of shoes you want.

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If you are interested in learning my daily yoga routine so you can incorporate it into your own life, consider signing up for my newly launched 21-Day Calm Your Mind Challenge!

The three week course includes a basic daily yoga yoga sequence that I guide you through on a new video link each day. It also includes breathing techniques, meditations, and guided self-reflections. The whole thing takes about twenty minutes a day and is delivered directly to your email so there are no new logins or passwords to remember.

The purpose of the challenge is to give participants concrete tools for increasing calm, reducing anxiety, and being able to live their lives more fully and with greater joy.

By the end of the challenge, you will feel noticeably calmer than you did on day 1.

The challenge costs less than $5 a day for the whole three weeks, and afterwards you have lifetime access to all course materials.

You don’t need to have done any yoga or meditation before. It is user-friendly, very down-to-earth, and great for all bodies, ages, and abilities. I am confident you will love it, but if you don’t for any reason, I will offer a full refund no questions asked.

Sign up at www.21DayCalmYourMindChallenge.com

A new challenge begins each Monday, and there is still time to sign up for the one that starts tomorrow!

I promise you will love it.

And you can also feel free to email me with any questions at lauren@calmyourmindchallenge.com