I’ve been rolling out my yoga mat every few days to work the kinks out. I spend a lot of time sitting or standing at my desk while I surf the Internet or write more stories. My body especially wants to stretch when it’s too icy to dare the sidewalk. Yesterday and today have been disappointing for my doggo. An Arctic cold front managed to dump almost a foot of snow and plunge our morning temperatures into the low single digits, Fahrenheit. The afternoon wasn’t much better. It snowed all day, adding to the totals. I decided not the chance a broken whatever and practice a bit of yoga a couple of times during the day instead.

Because it’s been almost two years since I’ve done a complete Vinyasa flow class, and my level of inactivity, I have been starting slow. I don’t want to overdo it and end up taking a dozen or so steps back; I hate starting over. I’ll take the tortoise pace than that of the hare, instead. Slow and steady will result in better health all the way around.

As slow as my progress has been, I am noticing a difference. And not just in my physical health, either. My emotional well-being benefits from the exercise, too. I catch myself smiling a lot on our walks. Not just at my pupper being a goof, but also because of the other wild and domestic critters that we pass along our route. One house we walk by has a pack of Pomeranian pups that make a fuss when we walk by. I call them “The Mini Squad.” They come racing out the open door to the fence, where they bark their little heads off until we are well past the house. Then they repeat the performance when we pass back by on the other side of the road.

Creating art has also been part of my repertoire. I enjoy putting pastels to paper and seeing what appears on the page.

All of this is helping my physical and mental health. Let’s see how long I can keep the momentum going.