The delight of my "new" yoga practice

About a month or so before we gave birth to our now 4 1/2 month-old baby girl, I began nesting and focused my energies on our screen porch, which was an eyesore to say the least. Rotted wood, screens tattered and torn. Plus the cement floor showed signs of having tile and old paint but unfortunately had been returned to its original, drab natural color of gray.

As a woman who was nine months pregnant and jonesing to nest (pregnancy is 10 months long, remember!), I couldn't do much with the porch but buy accessories and clean it out. This did help tremendously, but it definitely needed some true revitalizing of its bones.

In comes an affordable handyman who arrived at our house for the first time when baby girl was about a month old. Hired to fix a few other items in the house, he noticed what dire straits our screen porch was in and made some suggestions on what he could tackle.

I was so excited - my dream porch could finally come to fruition! He fixed the rotted pieces and put in some new screens and a new door. I ended up repainting the wood inside and painting the cement floor a dark green, which really made an enormous difference! Now my porch is a "livable" space that I can enjoy, especially with the beautiful autumn that's beginning in KC.

So a few Sundays ago, Brijin went down for her first nap very easily around 8 a.m. and the hub was still in bed... Why not try some yoga on the screened porch? There was just enough space on the side to roll out my mat without having to move any furniture - perfect! I began doing sun salutations, which felt so perfect in the early morning with the chorus of birds chirping in the background. We live in a house built in the 1940s and consequently there are enormous trees everywhere. Every time I looked up, I saw the canopy of leaves while also catching a passing cloud or two. Simply gorgeous and exhilarating combo - yoga au naturale!

Isn't it amazing how awesome doing something for the first time feels, even when you've been doing it for years? Making a small tweak is the trick to revitalizing anything, whether it's your yoga practice or your backyard-screened porch. Bouncing back after baby is tough so finding a new perspective to my yoga practice made all the difference.

If you're feeling like you're in a rut, make a small tweak to an everyday occurrence. Take a different route to work. Eat lunch outdoors instead of inside or at your desk. Listen to your loved ones wholeheartedly when they are telling you about their day.

Taking my mat outdoors gave me a whole new outlook, not only for my yoga practice but for my life. Seeing your everyday life at a new angle is what brings new joy to your world.