I am grateful for grommets.
There is much more I could say on this #thankyouthursday, but sometimes simple is best.
This grommet is simply the best.
At Kripalu, the yoga mats have grommets
A few weeks ago I was at Kripalu, which is a yoga and wellness center in the Berkshires that is kind of like what you’d get if heaven and summer camp had a baby.
I had some enlightening experiences while I was there, but my most pragmatic takeaway was this:
My yoga mat needed an upgrade.
See, in the studio spaces at Kripalu, all the mats are custom made with metal-rimmed holes near the top corners. This makes it very easy to hang mats on the wall, as opposed to rolling them into tubes, which is a more common approach to mat storage.
I was ready for an uncommon approach.
I wanted my mat to have grommets too
Instead of storing my rolled up mat in a closet, frequently unfurling it, and then re-rolling it on the regular, I had a vision of an at-home Kripalu setup, one that would keep my mat in plain sight and within easy reach.
At first I thought I’d have to buy something new.
I was willing to do that, but the idea did not thrill me. I’ve had my current mat since I got certified to teach yoga in 2011. It’s a little worn, sure, but we’ve been through a lot, me and that mat.
Fortunately, a quick online search for replacement options pushed me to get creative.
Because it turns out the only mats I could find that already had holes in them were either thick workout mats for gym settings, or yoga mats of questionable quality that required in-bulk purchasing. So I got to thinking:
Perhaps I could just modify what I already owned!
DIY construction comes with confrontations
Three YouTube videos and one Amazon order later, I had my solution.
Replace the canvas with a yoga mat and the graph paper with unprotected wooden flooring and you are looking at my Saturday morning.
Honestly, the “installation” process was more unpleasant than I would have preferred.
I had to confront anxiety about proper hole placement: what if I got the measurements wrong and the mat hung poorly and I hated it?
I had to confront my hesitation to cause damage to something I cared about: sure, I thought it was in the name of improvement, but what if I ruined the whole thing instead?
And I had to confront my downstairs neighbor: turns out you have to hammer pretty hard to install grommets, and one person’s floor is another person’s ceiling…
But on the whole, the ordeal was worth it.
All’s well that hangs well
The holes came out evenly placed.
The damage I caused in creating the holes was remedied by the new grommets that reinforced them.
I even befriended my neighbor.
And now when it’s time for yoga practice—which lately is every morning, afternoon, and some evenings, too—I have easy access to an important reminder:
For meaningful results, risk is often required.
Love > fear,
