Every Monday, Thursday and Saturday, you’ll find me on my mat. It’s an old mat (but that’s beside the point) and it’s a sweaty mat, which sounds a bit gross but plays more of a role. What I am trying to tell you is: I have probably become addicted to hot yoga, an intense hour of doing some more or less dynamic yoga poses (“asanas” as they are called) in a heated room. I think the class description says something like “gently heated room” but believe me, there’s nothing that feels gentle about this sauna of a yoga studio where the sweat of 80 or so scantily clad people forms droplets on the ceiling. There once was a guy standing next to me that looked like he had a faucet miraculously built into his index finger that was gracefully pointing towards the floor in half moon pose: He wasn’t dripping, there was a STREAM, never ending, coming out of his finger tip. Ugh. Why would you be addicted to something like that you are probably asking yourself - which is a fair point. I have pondered the same question many times and all I can come up with is that it makes me feel incredibly alive, which is cheesy but also 100% true. Given that I hate running it’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to the infamous “runner’s high”? It’s an hour that is so physically challenging that there simply is no headspace left to think about anything else but where to put your limbs in any given moment and how to not forget to breathe. And I think that just might be the answer. The teacher refers to this state as “beginner’s mind” which I have always loved. Obviously, this is another way to remind people to be “mindful” or “present” which is all the rage, anywhere from the boardroom to the bedroom. But the idea, simply put, to find the excitement of newness in something you have done hundreds of times is actually quite beautiful.