The guy with no arms and no legs who lies on the floor
So, the new year has started, and with it, a little bit of a resolution. It’s been a while in coming. What I wanted to do was to start meditating. This I did, and then to make things even more interesting and new-agey, I started a beginner’s yoga course, too.
So, that makes me the master of the mats right now. I have one for meditation, and one for yoga.
The meditation one, I suppose, is not strictly necessary. It’s sort of a throwback from the last time I tried to meditate. I’ve been trying to remember when that was, and why I decided to try it, but I completely forget. What I do recall is why I got the mat.
It was as a result of seeing some show somewhere about Muslims and their prayer rugs. As I was watching the show, the thing that intrigued me was the fact that the rug was a sacred item. It’s not used for anything else, and is treated reverently because of what it is. When someone puts the mat down, it’s a way to create instant sacred space, regardless of where one happens to be. I found that really appealing. I’ve long had a problem with ’sacred space’. Most of the time, it doesn’t work for me, because I never feel it’s mine. I do, however, feel it’s really important to have a particular space to do work like this; but it needs to be a personal space, too. Churches feel like sacred space, but they don’t feel personalized enough for me. A labyrinth is good, but only if you can find one, and the outdoor ones are no good for half the year. I felt best when I was in a circle that I cast for ritual during the time where I was a better pagan. The thing about circles though is that for me, they take a lot of time and energy and planning to make them feel right, and the fact that they are necessarily maintained in the mind always made it hard for me to do the work therein. For me, it’s easier to have physical space in addition to metaphysical space. The rug was such a simple, awesome idea. Thank you, Islam.
Not to say there’s no metaphysical component. I love the humble gesture of intent. When I lay down my meditation mat, it’s a sign to my mind that I’m now doing something important and worthwhile that I have chosen to do. It’s also a welcome mat… sort of a way to invite my best self to come on in and reach for me, because I’m reaching for it. And, I love that the more I use it, the more sacred it becomes.
I got the mat at the Farmer’s Market, believe it or not. There’s a pleasant Mennonite woman there who makes the rugs out of worn denim clothing. I can only speculate, but it seems to me that the odds are pretty decent that my mat has material that was worn by Mennonites as they went about their work. Something about that appeals to me. I have a certain respect for these people, and the ways in which they live their lives. I love that the mat is made of things that have been repurposed, and created with human hands rather than by machine. It feels right that its new use is meditation. The religious scholar in me just loves the theological hooks, too: clothing worn by Mennonites, attained by a post-pagan through Islamic inspiration to achieve a work with Buddhist roots. Gotta love me. 
I’ve been at it for over a month now, each day 10 minutes was my goal, and I’ve hit it without too much trouble. It really is getting to the point where I even look forward to it a little. The reason I started this time was probably better than the last reason. I have been doing loads of reading lately about mindfulness and meditation and its actual quantifiable benefits. It’s worth it, and for some reason, I feel ready. So far, I haven’t seen any of these benefits that I’m aware of, but I have noticed that I’m much more apt to be in the moment than I once was, and that in itself is a win. I hope I can keep this up from here on out, and maybe even bump the time I devote to more like 30 minutes a day. That’s apparently where one starts to see some pretty impressive benefits, if the studies are right.
The Yoga thing was more because I needed to get some sort of exercise, and I wanted to help out my stiff, tensed, awful little muscles a bit. Oddly, this is the second time I’ve tried Yoga, too. The first time I went by myself and it scared the pants off of me because the positions that required my head to be lower than my heart made me extremely lightheaded when I came out of them. At the end of the class, I very nearly passed out, and I figured that was my body telling me something. This time around though, I’m taking my time about it, and Suz is there to help me out if need be.
So far, so good. I haven’t even really had any trouble with dizziness. Seems that I might be improving without knowing it. I don’t think though that I’ll continue past the beginner’s course. This seems to be another in a line of things (the last one was running) that while good for me, I can’t find my passion about.
There’s got to be something out there that I can both like to do that is also good for me to do from a physical standpoint. I just haven’t found it yet. Ah well, no one can say I’m not trying at this point, anyway.
Maybe if the Yoga mat were as special as the meditation one. Nah, it’s just rubberized machine made sticky stuff.
Tags: Islam, mats, meditation, Mennonites, spirituality, yoga