Focus on Your Own Mat

That's what they tell you in yoga: focus on your own mat. The idea around this saying is to not concern yourself with what others are doing around you. In the world of yoga it means not worrying about whether your back is as straight as the person next to you, or if the person at the front can hold a pose for longer than you can or has better balance, but rather to focus solely on yourself and what you want to accomplish and take away from that class.

While in a yoga class with strangers the idea of focusing on your mat for an hour may be easy, but is focusing on your own mat that easy when you are surrounded by friends, family, colleagues and the like? The goal and purpose remains the same: to do things for yourself with only you in mind, and to block out the opinions of others. While the opinions of others matter to us, in the end the decisions we makes as our and have to function for us alone.

As I make my way through my post grad program, I'm reminded more than ever of the importance of focusing on my own mat. While the decision to move to Toronto and enroll in college raised a few eyebrows in and of itself, it was the best decision I could have made. The next 8 months need to be focused on my career and myself.

Focusing on yourself isn't selfish, in fact it's just the opposite, it allows you to give your best to people and be the best friend, son, daughter, brother, or whatever. At the end of the day, nobody knows their mat better than you so look at your mat, and you would be surprised at how good you feel when you aren't distracted by everyone else's downward dog.