How can it be that something that’s helped so much, again and again, could be something I put off, skip, and delay until the very last minute?

Now, I’m not trying to convert anybody to yoga, and I don’t consider myself a total California granola type (some may wish to differ!). But for me yoga’s been an amazing force for calm and sanity in my life. I can tend to excitability, anxiety, depression. Yoga, requiring strong, steady physical activity, has a wonderfully calming effect on me–it steadies and calms my brain. As somebody who desperately hid from sports and balls as a kid, the physical exertion, and coming together with others to do it has really been a revelation. Maybe football would have been fun!

But then why why why do I sometimes find myself out of sorts, cranky, in dire need of de-stressing, yet I just don’t get off my butt? Today I broke a couple-week string of inactivity, and I couldn’t believe I’d waited so long. It’s not that everything’s fixed, it’s just that anything seems manageable when there’s this tiny sliver of sanity in which to float above all the rest.

Yeah, I forgive myself. Yeah, we’re all human. But note to self: wouldn’t it be interesting if I did the proven things that help me most not as a desperate last measure, but as a regular thing? Wouldn’t that be cool?