Feed Your Flexibility

People are designed to be flexible, in body, and in mind. There's a popular saying, “Use it, or lose it.” Cumulative time spent within a limited range of motion has a calcifying effect – physically and mentally. Failing to explore range of motion, and practice suppleness, makes for a stiff weak body. Failing to continually learn new things and develop new ways of seeing, makes for a rigid mind with limited functionality.

You don't have to be old for this to happen. As a yoga teacher, I've taught teens who were tighter than mid-lifers who've never exercised. But it's more obvious in many of our elderly. I was walking behind a man the other day who carried his sofa around on his back, like a permanent, invisible shell, mimicking that form fitting indentation he'd worn into it, over the years. It was apparent that the seat was too deep for him, and that he never got around to getting another pillow, to support his back.

Petrification of the mind isn't that much harder to see. Again, perhaps easier to recognize in those elderly folks, who still live in the world that they grew up in, over half a century ago. But it can be seen, in some of our younger citizens, as well. Ideas, set in stone. Dogmas handed down, and taken to heart. Sides chosen, with no willingness to compromise. No effort extended to see the equation from other angles. We need to discard the confining shells of our minds with the same regularity that a snake sheds its skin, so that we can continue to grow beyond their rigid boundaries.

Belief that there is a right posture to hold, a right stance to take or a right way to see things, is contrary to flexibility. Everything is subjective, and contingent on conditions and circumstances. Slouching gets a bad rap, but how could you tie your shoes without doing so? It's not a good place to get stuck, but it's not bad to go there. Beliefs and attitudes aren't bad, but getting stuck within their confines, is limiting in numerous ways, and across multiple time frames. They're best, held loosely, not compressed into a solid immutable mass. We want to be able to sift through them regularly, to take inventory and re-evaluate what's still worth holding onto.

Flexibility may be your birthright, but it's not automatically bestowed. It needs to be developed and maintained. Some bodies are stronger or more easily manipulated. But it doesn't matter what your limits are, or what having more strength or speed might do for you. It's about exploring your full potential, as you are - from your core, to your center of gravity, to the very perimeters of your capacity; and perhaps, just a bit beyond. Similarly, some minds have faster processing speeds or solve problems of a particular nature better. But it's not a head to head competition. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Our task, is to work on the “who” that's present, in each moment, and to strive to be just a little bit better. Not everything needs to be discarded or reconstructed, but we rarely see things for what they are, upon our first encounter - or the twentieth, for that matter. Everything longs to be investigated and retested, and limits yearn to be challenged.

Newness is good. Different is divine. Diversity, our friend. We're well served by exposing ourselves to the unfamiliar, and inviting it to infuse our beings. Stretch your boundaries. Shift your attitudes. Try out new postures. Press beyond your preconceptions. Find a way of being that you've not tried on before, or one that has yet to be examined. Invent a way of holding yourself that's more open, empowered and receptive. Rigid is brittle. Supple is strong. Shed your shells. Soften and stretch. Fill yourself out. Never stop striving. Never stop improving. Feed your flexibility.