Back to The Mat.

Regret.  Ever had it?  Quite honestly, I haven't had too much of it.  I'm just not that kind of guy.  If I choose to do something, or not to do something, I typically do it after a well-thought-out planning session in my head.  First born.  Type A.  I do it with intention knowing full well that I may, or may not, wish I hadn't later on.  I know it ahead of time.  I don't usually look backwards except with fond memories and points of learning.  I rarely look back and say, "I wish I had......" 

Except there is this one little thing.  The gym.  Yoga.  And I'm clearly not alone.  I don't know what it is in our heads and hearts that allows us to ignore what is good for us.  I don't think I suffer from a lack of education or knowing precisely what is the best choice.  It is simply the act of making it happen.  It's not like I'm not paying for it every single month already.  Or that it is a three-day trip from my house to get to it -- it's less than a mile.  It's not that I don't like it once I get there because I do.  And there is no doubt at all that the endorphins created by being there make my life a decidedly better place to be.  Motivation is a strange bedfellow indeed. 

I went to yoga for several years.  And enjoyed every minute of it (well, nearly every minute, truth be told).  Gained flexibility.  Allowing my physical body to do things that it had never done before.  Learning something new that I knew nothing about before.  Exploring thoughts that I hadn't before.  Examining my own mind and heart and the good and bad that lies within.  Challenging myself to not look at that damned clock that they have up on the wall in the room -- but rather make my mind focus, demand that it retain certain thoughts and rid itself of others.  The yoga mat I have today is my original one.  And it lies in the far back reaches of the Kia Sportage.  Not really hidden.  But ignored.  At least I think it is still there. 

Last week, I received an issue of Yoga Journal in the mail.  By accident.  I've read the magazine before but really have no idea why this one particular issue arrived in the mailbox.  And the headline on the front could not have been more appropriate:  "10 Tips to Get You Back On Your Mat."  How did they know!  If you have practiced yoga, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.  If you haven't, you should. 

And so, today, after a more than one-year hiatus, I do believe that I'm going back to the mat.  I'm expecting a hour of pushing things in my body to places they haven't been in a while.  The health concerns of my last year are in the forefront of my mind -- I'll need to skip any neck extensions or poses -- but you see, that is how yoga works.....it allows you to honor your own body and do what is right for you, today.  And that is enough.