i haven’t been practicing much — does being kind to strangers count?

This is Ashtanga Yoga Tech Support. Real questions from the yoga community, answered.

The Question

I've only made it to the mat a couple times this month. I feel guilty about my spotty attendance. Does it even count as maintaining a practice when I'm barely showing up?

— from a MJH note

Our Response

If you’ve been deliberately kind to strangers, you’ve been practicing. The mat is just where you build capacity. The rest of your life is where you deploy it.

Asana develops attention, steadiness, the ability to stay present when things are uncomfortable. Those qualities don’t vanish the moment you roll up your mat. If you’re moving through the world with awareness and care — on purpose, not by accident — that’s the practice showing up.

The guilt around irregular attendance assumes the mat is the only place that counts. It’s not. Travel, illness, a week when nothing lines up: these aren’t failures. They’re just life. The question isn’t how many days you logged; it’s whether the work you’ve done is informing how you show up everywhere else.

Don’t mistake frequency for fidelity. Keep the mat in rotation when you can. But if the choice is between showing up exhausted and resentful or taking care of yourself and staying engaged off the mat, choose the latter. The postures will wait. Your capacity for attention won’t.