we’re all vessels. We fill and we empty, ad infinitum. We pour ourselves into people, places, projects - and they, in turn, pour themselves back into us. We’re porous, after all. The containers we create for ourselves serve a dual purpose: filtering what we allow into our lives and what we allow out.

sometimes we tinker with the container when we should be looking at the contents, but sometimes it really is the vessel that needs changing. It needs to be bigger or smaller, or maybe an entirely different shape altogether.

Take this post you’re reading - it’s a self-imposed container I created, and now I have an impulse to fill it. A year ago, I wanted to make more space for writing in my life, so I created a container for it. If spag mol didn't exist, I wouldn't write (and therefore think) as much as I do.

When you’re doing yoga, your mat is the whole world. For those 60 minutes, the mat is your container. Even in a room full of people, you’re only paying attention to what happens on that one rectangle of space.

Sometimes I imagine my mat floating in the ocean like a little raft. And if I nudged my toe over the edge, I’d touch cool saltwater instead o... See more