My Yoga Mat is My Magic Carpet

By Emma Wykes

My yoga mat is not just a piece a rectangle piece of rubber. It’s not just the space for me to do my practice on. In the last year of lock down it has been so much more.

It’s a magic carpet, a time travelling magic carpet.

March 2020 and the first lock down, I felt scared, anxious, powerless and a bit lost. Being locked down with the news of a life threatening virus that was super contagious will hopefully be a once in a lifetime experience.  We huddled in our homes, keeping our immediate family close and communicating with everyone else over zoom. 

My yoga practice is pretty regular, before lock down I mostly did weekends and hopefully a class during the week if I had time. I’m COO of a global company that makes me time poor and stressed. I’ve been practising yoga for 21 years now and during those 21 years whenever I’ve had something difficult to work through in life, I’ve sought solace and healing on the mat. Recovering from running a marathon, 2000 and 2005, yoga was the only thing that eased my sore joints and stopped my body aching. A broken heart in 2008 and instead of seeking solace in the traditional, more destructive salves, I took to my mat, every day for a straight 45 days. A yoga class, 60 or 90 mins, would have me in the moment, nowhere else for that time on the mat. As I moved and strengthened my body, I started to heal and the 45 days transported me through time and away from the grief and rawness of a broken heart.

Lock down has been many forms of grief, we’ve been grieving for lost loved ones, lost jobs, lost freedoms, lost opportunities and the loss of control over our lives. I remembered that a salve for grief is yoga and am very fortunate to be part of the YogaVenue family, who swiftly moved their classes on line. 

For the first time in about ten years, I could get on my mat for 60 mins a day for a live class with other lock down yogis. I committed to 30 days straight. By the 31st December last year I had done 445 hours of yoga in 2020, that also included a 300 hour teacher training course. YogaVenue provided a great amount of varied classes each day, Hot 26, Vinyasa, Restorative. 

The daily yoga helped me feel that I still had control over something, I had and have control over how I react to things, we all do. That hour on the mat not only kept my body healthy, but my mind and stress levels, it made me a better mother, wife, colleague, friend. The 30 days daily practice took me through the scariest early days of Covid. It also dramatically changed my practice. My preferred yoga is the Hot 26, so normally I’m practising in the heat. Practising the same sequence without the heat builds strength and stamina, I got deeper into postures and got so much stronger. 

Covid gave me the opportunity to finally do my yoga teacher training, after day dreaming about it for 20 years. A 300 hour hot 26 training at YogaVenue over the Summer.  We somehow managed to do most of this in person in between lock downs. 

Your mat can be anything you want it to be, for me it is truly magic, the transporter through time, the magic rectangle of peace and being present, the place where I can build mental and physical muscles, where I can learn lessons through concentration and stamina that follow me off the mat into my life.

- Emma Wykes

Emma teaches Hot 26 Hour every Tuesday at 12pm