Myth: Yoga is Only for Flexible People
I often hear “I’m too stiff to do yoga.” Or its opposite: “I’m not flexible enough for yoga.”
One initial response I think about is- do we say we’re not fit enough to go to the gym? Don’t we go to the gym to exercise and get more fit? Why do we limit ourselves when we think about flexibility?
There are many approaches to breaking down this myth that we have to be flexible to do yoga. Let’s start at the physical level of the body first.
To begin, it is very possible to increase of flexibility. That’s one of the benefits of doing yoga. So, if we are feeling stiff or tight, yoga can help us feel the ability we have to shift into more pliability. It may be a small amount in a class- but over time, it makes a palpable difference in not just our sense of being less tight in our muscles, but it allows for a sense of ease and relaxation, as tension ebbs from the effect of the stretching.
Secondly, yoga isn’t just about being flexible, physically. It’s about finding a balance between strength and flexibility. There is an adage of yoga that relays: Flexibility without strength is instability; strength without flexibility is rigidity.
Moving beyond the physical response to this myth, we perhaps need to clarify that yoga is much more than just the postures, the āsana. Yoga is a practice of uniting the various parts of ourselves: body, breath, mind, spirit. It is a practice of remembering our wholeness and our connection to something bigger than ourselves. It is a practice of knowing and experiencing our interconnection to each other and the planet.
And for this, it’s irrelevant if we are stiff or flexible.
Even if we’re doing yoga in a movement-based class, to move with awareness and breathe with mindfulness, is to create a shift in the mind and nervous system. With these shifts, our tension patterns, our stress, even our concepts of our world can shift and usher in a sense of ease and freedom.
Come as you are- stiff, flexible, able-bodied, disabled, new to yoga, or a seasoned yoga practitioner. Yoga can adapt to the physical body that we live in: we can use chairs, the wall, the floor, blankets, straps, blocks. If the place you go to do yoga doesn’t know how to adapt its flow for your needs, keep looking! Yoga is for all beings in a body- flexible or not.
#yogaisn’tjustforflexiblepeople #yogaforallbodies #inclusiveyoga #yogaisunion