I went to my mat because, well, because it was the only thing I could do.

Today is a rest day. I don’t do well with rest days. They make me antsy. They make me fearful of falling back into patterns of sloth that would land me on a episode of Hoarders. But I take the rest days nonetheless, with a bit of whining thrown in for good measure. Yoga would be fine today, my coach said. So I rolled out my mat in the pre-dawn hour and prepared for an easy, flowing sequence.

Before I began, I flipped through Meditations from the Mat, a book of daily reflections on yoga. I skimmed over words and phrases with the usual suspects catching my eye — the ones about detaching from outcomes,  embracing the journey,  seeing life with new eyes. Then I saw this quote from Seneca:

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare;
it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

In a week where I drive myself completely insane (granted, that’s not a very far trip), this bit of wisdom from provides me a different focus. What if I gave up hedging my bets? What if I decided to dare? What possibilities become available?

Oh rest day. You are sneaky. I see what you did there. Sometimes the best preparation is all about taking a leap with your heart.