yoga mats

I came to the realization two days ago (while washing my hair, how random!) that I have never purchased a yoga mat. Each of my mats have a story of their own and now I'm going to share those stories with you.

• My purple mat. It was given to me on my seventeenth birthday by a friend. When I first began practicing, I was sixteen and this friend and I would get together after school and on the weekends to practice in her bedroom or my parents' living room. I still remember her walking up the sidewalk with that mat in her arms. I was so excited. I felt like such an official yogi! I still have that mat and it has seen me through many, many classes. It currently lives at YoYoYogi and I use it when I practice there.
• My green mat. I got this at my first teacher training, six years after my first mat was given to me. I left it in the plastic for that whole weekend because I didn't want to "cheat" on my purple mat. I have since unwrapped it currently serves as my teaching mat.
• My olive Jade mat. Gifted to me by my best friend, Cristena. Christmas 2008. I have loved this mat ever so much. Because of the natural rubber and my leaving it in the car all the time (it was my teaching mat for a long time), it has lost a lot of its grip and I have now appointed it my at home practice mat.
• My orange Jade mat. My sweet friend and fellow yoga teacher Dana gave me this one for Christmas this past year. I thought I lost my beloved olive mat, but lucky me, I found it! Now I have two Jade mats and this one is much better taken care of (ie: I do not leave it in the car, nor do I expose it to direct sunlight). I have used this one for practicing at home, practicing at YoYo, and teaching. 

And then there was another purple mat, identical to Purple Mat A, that belonged to the friend who gave me Purple Mat A. Her interest in yoga quickly fizzled and she rolled up her mat and stuck a hair tie around it. It was like that for years. By the time I got the mat, the divot from the hair tie was so deep and the mat was a little crumbly. I tried to breathe some love back into it and revive it, but it just wasn't coming back. RIP Purple Mat B.

And another mat, the red one.  This one came into my life sometime circa 2004. I was so in love with yoga and wanted to share it with everyone I knew. I practiced in my living room regularly and coerced my boyfriend's neighbor into buying a mat one night while we were shopping at Target. I think she practiced with me once, but we soon lost touch and she had left Red Mat at my apartment. I always got weird energy from that mat and I very rarely used it. Quite honestly, I really just don't enjoy the color red. I gave that one to my mom when it became clear that I wasn't going to see Red Mat's original owner again. Red Mat lived in the trunk of my mom's car for a really long time, and she now uses it for the Monday night restorative class she takes from my friend and fellow teacher, Dana. Long live Red Mat.

I used to have attachment issues with my mats. I would only use my purple mat for the longest time, even though I had others. Once I got my olive Jade mat I was a bit more able to let go of the attachment I felt to Purple Mat A. These days, I will use any mat for any practice any place, and sometimes I don't even use a mat at all!

And there's the story of my yoga mats. I hope you enjoyed!