According to the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the most important scripture of Hatha Yoga, the ideal place for yoga should be clean, tidy and free from animals and insects.

Ms. L. just manages the latter, but the first two points are problematic.

Nevertheless: The way to her favorite yoga studio has become too far for her, you don’t want to catch viruses there either – practice at home.

Fortunately, there are good online courses, which she has become accustomed to during the pandemic.

Anne-Christin Sievers

Editor in the "Housing" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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So, late in the evening, Ms. L. walks around the apartment with her laptop, looking for the best place to roll out the mat.

The bedroom: already filled with bed and cupboard – the child is sleeping there anyway.

The hallway: too uncomfortable.

The living room: She could squeeze herself into the narrow strip between the sofa and the dining table, but the two racks full of dried laundry call out: "Hang us off, put us together, now, tomorrow there won't be time again because of x, y and z!"

The children's room remains.

Before the offspring came, Ms. L. practiced her asanas here regularly.

Where once there was order, the floor is now so littered with Playmobil, Lego and various cuddly toys that you can hardly see the parquet underneath.

Ms L. makes her way to the middle of the room, rams a creeper into the soles of her feet, stumbles over the bobby car and at the end slips on a jigsaw puzzle.

Cursing, she wipes an area with her forearm that just barely fits the mat.

She looks around and realizes that there is no atmosphere in this chaos, even if she lights a candle, sets out her murtis or waves incense sticks around.

Clean up first

Unfortunately, Ms. L. has developed an annoying habit in recent years that doesn't make it easier to relax.

She used to not care how things looked around her, how high the mountains of dishes were in the kitchen, how many clothes were on the floor or papers were piled up.

In the meantime, she has developed a mania for order that only allows her to settle down when the surroundings are tidy to her satisfaction - which is rarely the case.

So she gets to work: books on the shelves, creepers in the box, trousers in the closet.

"Finished, we can start now!" Ms. L. is thinking just when she hears crying coming from the bedroom.

The child has woken up and wants to be calmed down and stroked to sleep.

Ms L. only lies down for a very short time.

Before she drifts off, she gets a flash of inspiration: this is the supreme discipline!

Anyone who manages to cling so little to the outside and to calm the mind so much that he can do yoga even in a cluttered children's room is damn close to enlightenment.

Unfortunately, Ms. L. hasn't got that far yet.

Maybe you just have to close your eyes for that, she thinks.

And then just close your eyes.