The yoga mat

As I rolled up my yoga mat this morning I thought, "I don't know what I'm going to write about today."

Every day is a blank page.  We can write what we want on it.  What an incredible opportunity!  Yet faced with the blank page many of us experience writer's block.  What do we really want to write about, what do we really want our lives to be about?

It's the same thing with the yoga mat.  It's one of the best things I brought with me from California. The intention is there to practice yoga and I roll out the mat.  There it is, a blank yoga mat and me.  No teacher to tell me what to do.

I've been practicing yoga now since the early 1990's.  When I was pregnant with my first child I attended "yoga for pregnancy" classes in Harrow-on-the-Hill.  Since then I've attended yoga classes in Bushey, Santa Barbara, Lompoc and Söderköping and the place where I really developed the discipline and desire to work on my own regular yoga practice was at YogaVie.org in Lompoc.

Since moving to Sweden in July last year I have practiced mostly at home alone.  It's not the same as going to classes and I'm sure I don't challenge myself in the ways I would be challenged in classes but I do feel that my little yoga practice has done its bit, and not a small bit either, to keep me healthy and well throughout a long, dark Swedish winter.

Just roll the mat out, it awaits like a blank sheet of paper, for you to write and practice on.  No-one is watching, your body will thank you!