One of the downfalls to the Airstream is there is not a lot of floor space. I haven’t measured, but it is probably only a couple of feet wide in most places. For two people who love to stretch out on our yoga mats that has invited an opportunity to get creative about how we keep up our practice on a regular basis.

When we are really lucky we get to put up the “yoga studio” which is our round pop up screen tent. We invested in a sturdier one and it has sides that role down and a canvas floor that we can lay inside to make it more “homelike”. But a lot of campgrounds don’t allow this structure along with your trailer and car - but last week we were able to have the studio up for the full two weeks and it was so lovely to be able to stretch out. We even practiced yoga together one day, streaming a class from our retired yoga teacher who we love and miss so much.

But usually we find ourselves practicing outside in front of the trailer. At first this was difficult and I had a sense that everyone in the campground was watching me (which is probably true) but I discovered a trick. I plug my earbuds in, tune into Krishna Das, and move through my practice oblivious to what is around me. Krishna keeps me focused on the movements and ignoring the people staring. And I have begun forming friendships with the trees that usually hang out over my mat. It is different from my yoga community in the desert but the trees still make good companions - and always encourage me to keep going.

Jason has discovered another tactic. He gets up super early, when no one else is awake in the campground, and does his practice without any observers. He has found this time to be peaceful and quiet and it works well with his work schedule.

But what to do when it rains? Or when it is too cold outside? Which has been our experience for the past few months.

For a long while we just stopped doing anything on those days- which is not a good practice at all - and over the winter we noticed that it was beginning to form its own practice of no yoga at all - not good for either one of us.

So lately we have playing around with what yoga might look like inside the confined space of the Airstream. And let me just say, it’s challenging.

Any side to side motions are out. And for Jason any movement that requires him to stretch his hands over his head are a no go as the roof is not much higher than this head. And streaming a yoga class together is definitely not an option.

Yesterday, as I squeezed onto my mat while it poured rain outside, I thought about what it means to practice yoga surrounded by walls and things that block my movement. It makes for a slower and more meticulous practice that’s for sure. You have to spend more time thinking through how you will move instead of just flowing from one movement to the next. I find myself turning vertical and then horizontal to allow for different postures. I lay on the floor and lift my hands up over my head only to find them hitting the door behind me. I stretch out my feet and feel the edge of the couch pressing in against the soles of my feet. I turn and try to do a spinal balance but cannot reach my hand out sideways. So I focus on doing my balances another way. No matter how frustrating it is, I cannot argue that it certainly gets me in my body. I become deeply aware of it my body’s contours and edges. The length of my limbs. I challenge my creativity to see how I can make a desired posture work. But mostly, to be honest, I just get frustrated and find myself coveting those huge trailers we see with slide outs. Not that I really want one - but the frustration of the confined space stirs up all my weaknesses.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been re-reading a book that I first read many years ago called, “Benedict’s Dharma”. A small, but mighty book, where four Buddhist practitioners reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict and its intersections of practice between Buddhists and Benedictines. I remember when I first read the book many years ago, I didn’t understand many of the things that were written in the pages. I remember thinking it was all too harsh. Too difficult. Too demanding in its discipline. But as I read it now, all these years later, I am finding many bits of wisdom tucked inside the pages. Like how to practice yoga in a confined space.

Well not exactly in those words - but sort of.

Yesterday I read these lines about the importance of boundaries in spiritual practice,

“Discipline is bound to seem narrow to start, but in the long run [it] is experienced as eager love and delight that defies expression” (italics from the Rule of Saint Benedict).

And then there was this:

“Natural discipline arises when we let go of our customary discursiveness and discover what a situation demands. Our life circumstances are not enemies; they are direct manifestations of the magical ordinariness of things as they really are…Experiencing these demands as boundaries… can transform any life into a contemplative life”.

Maybe these words feel like gobbly gook to you. Maybe not. For me they found me right on that mat in the confined space of my trailer where real physical boundaries were pushing up against my desire to practice with no boundaries. I couldn’t help seeing the connection of how the wall to my left, and the wall to my right, were just like the walls I encounter in my daily life. And I started to ask myself what it might feel like to enter my practice with this in mind. To explore what happens to me internally when I feel that wall pressing in on my practice. What could it teach me about the walls I am encountering in my day to day life. How can I take what I am learning in that space and apply it to my “magical ordinariness”. Can I adjust the way I approach things. Am I open to changing my expected outcomes. Can I find ways to be creative without giving up.

These are the questions swirling in my mind and heart this day. Another day of work. Another day full of rain inside our tiny space.

There is a saying from the teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers that says, “go to your cell and your cell will teach you everything”. Seems there is more wisdom in those words than I ever thought possible. Wondering what walls you are pressing up against these days and what you are finding helpful in being spacious in such a confining space.

And, if you have any good recommendations for yoga in tiny spaces, send them our way.