Once again, I have decided to unroll my yoga mat and attempt to bend myself into peculiar shapes. This comes with several challenges.
The first and most obvious is that I’m not very flexible, and I never have been. As I’m learning this go-round with yoga, modifications are my friend and don’t push it too hard. This is easier in my living room than, say, a class full of strangers.
But I’ve managed to make a new habit with my yoga practice after deciding it was just too hot to walk or jog outside during the summer. I needed indoor exercise, and something different, and thus, the mat was once again unfurled.
There are secondary and tertiary challenges to my yoga practice, and they both are very curious as to why I’m wiggling around on their level. Smidge is the least of my worries, once she gives me a good sniff, she watches my fitness routine from somewhere comfortable. But Cairo….
I got into yoga after I graduated college, so right around the time I got Cairo. He’s been a yogi-cat for as long as he’s been with me. And every time I’ve started practicing again, he is intrigued. First, what am I doing on the floor? Then, can you pet me in this pose? How about this one? Following that, am I positioned on the mat ok? What do you mean I’m in the way? And my personal favorite, what does this mat feel like beneath my claws?
I have two yoga mats, and my favorite one - which is a little on the thick and squishy side, and is personalized, and is also bright pink – is also Cairo’s favorite. He clearly ignores the personalization and acts like it’s his mat. Does he like the texture or something? The smell? No clue, but the mat does have three small bits is missing in the shape of a paw, thanks to you know who.
I can’t help but chuckle when I shift my gaze during downward facing dog and see those missing bits. Or when I’m transitioning from tabletop, bharmanasana, or cow pose, bitilasana, to cat pose, marjarysana, and he appears as if he was called. I find it soothing when he (or Smidge) ends up on the mat for the final, grounding pose, savasana, with me. And I guess it’s even cute when I have to pause my instructional video because Cairo is rolling around next to me and hindering the flow.
Well, with such support of my health and inner peace, he can’t really be hindering anything.
