Imagine my delight when The Bolder Mat Company sent me a new yoga mat! I was like a toddler on Christmas morning about to break into a new toy. What a beautiful mat! It’s definitely the prettiest mat I’ve ever had and I’ve had alot. It’s nice-n-thick, making it perfect for me because I do ashtanga and do alot of jumpbacks, arm balances, and crazy stuff which is better suited to a thicker mat. Also, my mat has to be sticky. There is nothing worse than slippin’ and slidin’ around your mat. This one delivered on both thickness and stickiness. Yay, two thumbs up!
Please indulge me for a second before I give you pics of me doing yoga… Destiny…a fluffy word that I believe is overused and certainly screams crystals and new age. Not a word I use often, but I am using it now. I believe that this yoga mat was destined to come into my life. Why? Well for starters, my tattoos match the mat in 3 places, of course. See the Om Tattoo on my foot matches the Om on the Mat. Please don’t hold the lack of a recent pedicure against me. Sidebar time: Everyone asks me two questions about that tattoo. First, “Did it hurt?” Yes, but it was over in 15 minutes, really not a big deal. Secondly, I am asked, “Well what does it mean?” Depending on the person, I either tell them “Oh, nothing, I was drunk when I got it” OR “It’s just a yoga thing” OR “Peace and enlightenment”. Usually I feel the need to explain very little to random strangers who think it’s ok to suddenly become my BFF and ask me all kinds of nosey questions, so I just say it’s a peace symbol. But you can read all about Om here, or here, or here. Moving right along, here Fishey fishey. Well I’ve got a fishey fishey tattoo on my stomach. Since my close-up self-portraits of my stomach were super blurry, I happily omited that tat pic. Armband tattoo self-portrait was a little bettter. But this is much prettier. So now that you know I match the mat…ahhh, destiny… It’s back to your regularly scheduled yoga programming. On the new mat! Standing Half-Bound Lotus. Left foot up in lotus, left arm wraps around your back and grabs your left foot, and then…. You fold over. This is Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana (Half Bound Lotus Standing Forward Bend). The new mat was nice-n-sticky. No slippage from my sweaty hand. Another cool thing about it was the placement of the Om symbol and also the fish’es eyeball. Depending on what pose I was doing, those two landmarks provided nice Drishti‘s, aka gazing or focal points. Here’s the Tip of the Day: When you’re doing any kind of balancing posture in yoga, quit lookin’ around to see what everyone else is doing! Well, you really shouldn’t ever be a lookey lou, but especially when you’re trying to balance. Pick a spot on the wall, a dot on the ceiling, the tag piece of lint on your neighbor’s shirt, whatever it is, find your spot, your drishti, gaze there, and hold. It will make finding and maintaining your balance a whole lot easier. Marichyasana B Urdhva Dhanurasana, aka Full BackBend. Couple things, try not to let your feet splay out like duck feet. And imagine that someone is pushing downward, from above, on your hips and stomach pelvic region. It will force you to keep opening up your heart and chest, while deepening your backbend. Always do a counter pose like child’s or a foward bend after any kind of backbend. And with that, it’s time to go eat my friends! But before I sign off, I’d love to hear what your most indispensible piece of workout equipment is? Mine is either my running shoes or my yoga mat. Toss up I think. What’s yours? :) Averie