Weathering the Winter with Yoga

Staying healthy takes a year round commitment.  Exercise shouldn't stop in the summer because it's too hot - or in the winter because it's too cold.  But sometimes, the change in weather makes it hard to motivate our bodies.  Let's be honest, we're all guilty.

Take this winter, for instance.  By the time I get off work, the sun's already set, and I'm putting on gloves for the drive home.  The last thing on my mind is changing into a pair of shorts and hitting the gym.  An article on artofliving.org says that because of the cold outside, our bodies are instinctively in "contracted mode."  So how do we simultaneously relax and work them?  Well - recently, I decided to take the plunge into hot yoga.  It's been a really great experience for me, so I wanted to share (with a little bit of weather flair)...

One of the great things about yoga is that you can do it inside OR outside, depending on the weather (and your style).  Bikram yoga has been growing in the United States in recent years.  Even Jenny Craig is suggesting clients give it a try.  Bikram takes place in a studio heated to 105 degrees Fahrenheit with 40% humidity.  That's a dew point of 76 degrees.  YIKES!!!  That's essentially like doing yoga outside on a really hot day in Florida.  Talk about sweating it out!

Slightly less extreme is just normal "hot yoga," which is a little more open-ended than the Bikram yoga routine... and usually heated to 85-95 degrees.  It will still feel like you're working out on a hot summer day - but in the winter, it's a nice trick to play on your body!  In fact, by the time you finish, a burst of icy winter air even feels refreshing.  Trust me, I'm speaking from experience as someone who typically hates that first step out into the cold.

Yoga is also great for your health.  It helps with breathing, circulation and digestion.  Most yogis claim that it can also clear congestion and help keep your immune system in top gear... making it a great way to fight off those winter colds.  For people who think yoga is only about breathing or meditation, I promise you can find classes that will kick your butt (literally and figuratively) and strengthen muscles you didn't even know you had.

If you're crazy enough, you CAN do yoga in the snow.  I'm not talking about a yoga mat and bare feet in the middle of your backyard.  But if you want to connect with nature (even at its coldest), a Spirituality & Health article quotes a Michigan-based yoga instructor who mixes yoga with cross-country skiing - and another from New Hampshire who mixes it with snowshoeing.  She calls it "sno-ga," which I have to admit makes me smile :)  And if you look it up, there are tons of pictures like the beautiful one here (credit to Alixandra Gould, and more photos available on her blog) of people practicing yoga in the snow after properly warming their bodies.  So now you know... there's no excuse.  You can do yoga in any climate, anywhere in the world!

Mother Nature's Greatest Light Show

Alan Highton

Other than a bright, sunny beach in the Caribbean, you may have never thought weather would be the primary reason for travel.  But the light show you'll find over the Catatumbo River in Northwest Venezuela is something you can't find anywhere else in the world.

It's a thunderstorm like you've never seen before - with an average of about 40 thousand lightning strikes per night.  Anvil crawlers (cloud to cloud lightning) and bolts that reach down to the ground light up the night sky for
hours.  And while locals have grown up thinking the phenomenon is normal, it's started to draw visitors from around the world.

ABC News ran a story on the lightning back in 2011, which is how I first learned about the Catatumbo Lightning.  It reports that in early 2010, the lightning - which had previously been as reliable as Old Faithful - stopped for months.  The story is told from the perspective of locals in a poor water town on Lake Maracaibo, at the mouth of the Catatumbo River.  It's well worth watching, but since I work for a CBS affiliate at the time I'm writing this blog post, I will just leave the link above.

Alan Highton

One man, Alan Highton, lives with the indigenous people and has started a tour company for visitors out of Merida.  The town is built out into the lake on tin and wooden stilts, and people get around by boat.  As a scientist, living on water in lightning sounds dangerous (water conducts electricity).  But they've managed to make it work for centuries.

In March of 2015, The Guardian writer Alasdair Baverstock had the chance to visit Venezuela and report on the lightning first hand.  Like the ABC journalists, he met with Highton for a tour.  He says they stayed in the lakeside fishing town of Ologa.  Locals were amazed he traveled so far to see what they watch from their hammocks every night.

Short from plagiarizing, there's no way to describe the lightning (or the locals) better than his first hand experience, and I highly recommend the article.  He even offers tips for travelers... which I hope to take advantage of myself one day.

Jorge Silva

As for what makes the lightning happen, there are a lot of theories.  It could have to do with the landscape between the river and nearby mountains.  It could be from the low pressure systems that regularly sits over the area, creating lift and instability.  It could be from the dark waters, which hold an unusually large amount of oil and methane.  Or it could be a combination of many things.  The truth is, nobody is really sure.

Regardless of why the lightning happens, you can't deny that the result is mesmerizing.  For those of you with an adventurous heart, I hope you make the trek down some day and send me a picture.  Or maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be there, too!

Want to know more?  Leave your comments here, find me on Facebook and Twitter, or email me at rkaye@wmbd.com.


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