Rainbow

This morning I finally did exercises that were not scripted. While I had begun to exercise when my daughter rolled out her exercise mat on the living room floor in front of me and I followed suit, after our five minutes of yoga sun salutation poses, I branched out on my own and exercised according to my feelings.

I laid flat on my back on the floor.

I bent my legs and held my knees in my arms and rolled from side to side.

I straightened my legs and stretched my arms overhead with fingers folded and palms facing out and stretched and stretched.

I laid on my stomach with arms at my side and palms facing upward and I lifted my neck and shoulders off the floor as high as I could.

I sat up cross-legged and tried to push my knees outward and down to the floor until I could feel a stretch.

I laid on my stomach and swam the breast stroke in the air.

I laid on my back and brought one leg straight up in the air and the opposite arm up to touch my toe and then switched to the other leg and arm and kept switching over and over.

I did modified push-ups.

I did modified crab walks.

I sat up with legs straight out in front of me and toes curled toward me and I bent forward to touch my toes with my outstretched arms.

I continued changing up for quite a while and incorporated a bunch of movements that did not look like exercise but felt good.

I felt like I looked silly and was glad when my daughter tired of the game and left me to my own devices after the first ten minutes so I could move in ways that might have looked awkward if anyone had been watching.

I exercised until I felt I had really exercised.

Then I rolled up my exercise mat.

And a funny thing happened.

As I was rolling up my mat, I noticed that on the lower half of the mat there appeared a rainbow, glistening on the mat surface and waving and shimmering as I maneuvered the mat until it was all rolled-up and the rainbow disappeared. There must have been a reflection of the sun coming through the picture window somehow, to bend the light and cause the beauteous image I beheld.

I am taking that rainbow as a sign from God that I am doing it right. Exercising.

I am doing the right thing by exercising according to my own needs and feelings. I am allowing the exercise to flow naturally and I am working my body in a different way than I would be if I were following a traditional exercise class.

It makes me happy to think God approves of my creative form of exercising. And I am choosing to go with these "happy" thoughts, to dwell on them for a few moments as I prepare to get on with the rest of the activities I have planned for my day.

It is great to end an exercise routine with happy thoughts!