I’m on day nine of a 30-day yoga practice. The thing about yoga, for me, is it’s essential to my well-being; therefore, I often forget about it. It goes in the column of drinking enough water, staying off screens a couple hours before bed, and flossing between all my teeth, not just the ones I feel like.
Diving back into this practice is challenging because in the beginning, it’s not easy. My limbs are not as flexible. Muscles strain where they once did not. Hands no longer meet as easily behind my back. But, with each session, I can do a little more. I can bend a little more easily. I can stay in a position just a little longer. I can breathe a little more deeply.
My resting heart rate spiked in the weeks leading up to the U.S. election, and it stayed elevated for nearly a month. Like all of us, I, too, am not interested in allowing outside forces out of my control to take such a drastic and unhealthy toll, so I keep an eye on national and world events, but I’m practicing keeping my mind closer to home.
I think about the activities and things that bring with them a sense of dread and have been actively replacing them with more productive and/or peaceful challenges. I think about the people who spike my anxiety and keep them outside my orbit while nurturing those friendships that bring peace and joy (that last bit was really difficult for this aging Xer to write without upchucking a little in my mouth).
My partner and I acquired three jigsaw puzzles recently to see us through the dark winter months when our minds begin to wander. We’ve lost the use of our dining table, but it’s worth it.
Sliding from my workspace to the puzzle to search for a color here, a shape there, allows me to clear my mind of stress and quite literally focus on the little things.
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch
This triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, painted between 1490–1500, hangs in the Prado in Madrid.
The current puzzle is a 1,000-piece Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights. I’ve never seen this one in person, but I imagine by the end of the puzzle, I will know it quite well.