i love this mat

No, this is not an ode to my manduka travel mat, which is fraying, by the way. The extremely humid summer at the shala did it in. It is still quite usable, but next summer I will have to get manduka to replace it. I think it took about 3 months for it to start wearing out. This is what I get for sweating buckets during practice over the summer, and not learning until it was too late, to roll the mat up with a scarf to keep the moisture at bay.

No, this is an ode to this mat:

the padmanailmat. A friend of mine lent me his mat, and I quickly bonded with it. This mat is great for sore muscles and injuries. I use it just about every day, for a few minutes. It may look ouchy..but it isn't. It gives you a sort of accupressure massage, which seems to work well for me, as actual massages don't seem to work well with my body. I can feel the energy move from blocked areas when I lie on this mat. Brilliant. While massages seem to stir things up too much, and create recurring patterns of tenseness and soreness ( I am convinced my wrist issues would have been better served by not getting bodywork of any kind), this mat just gives my muscles a more gentle release. Standing on it was particularly helpful when I whacked my toes from a botched bhuja exit this summer.

Oh, am I glad it is a moon day tomorrow.