Perhaps not ideal, but...

Perfect. Your yoga practice. Your life. Right now.

Inspired by a comment made by my teacher during training this past fall, this became the mantra of our Crooked Island yoga sessions during the recent holidays.

Heels don't reach the mat today in downward dog? Not to worry. Your pose is perfect. Perhaps not ideal, but perfect.

Your New Year’s weight loss resolution already headed south?

Wave goodbye. Release it. Smile. Welcome it back when you’re ready.

In this moment, you are perfect.

For fun, try on perfect as your normal state of being, your status quo. Look around and instead of compiling a list of what’s wrong in your field of vision (including your mirror), attach to it a different label: perfect. Give a nod to ideal; it can inspire and motivate us, but beware the comparison trap. Perfect is presence. Ideal pits presence against “could be” or “should be”. Strive for ideal and risk losing the moment, this moment, in which you are (all together now) perfect.

I roll out my mat for this afternoon’s yin practice. A line of ants marches purposefully across the living room floor. Dog hair has collected underneath the couch in pillow-stuffing amounts. My right knee wants to debate the first pose.

Inhale. Exhale. Perfect.