The scariest truth ever is that if you don’t use it, you will lose it. Your muscles and joints quickly start to stiffen and tighten when they are starved of a range of movements - as fast as the fourth day. You literally start to walk like a zombie or Frankenstein. It’s eerie really.
Many people start to practise yoga in order to make their bodies flexible. What does flexibility actually mean to you? In the Collins dictionary flexible is defined as:
‘1. able to bend without breaking 2. easily influenced 3. adjustable to change’.
Physical flexibility is the ability to move muscles and joints through their complete range. Unless we stretch, our bodies get lazy, muscles atrophy (waste) and our joints settle into a limited range. The benefits derived from stretching include joint lubrication, improved healing, better circulation and enhanced mobility.
Simply practising a few rounds of Sun Salutations each day will help to keep your body flexible and make it fitter.
In yoga, “flexibility” is also an attitude that transforms the mind as well as the body. Often we are not even aware that our mind is stiff. We are so used to thinking and behaving in a particular way that it seems ‘natural and right’. We may even, unquestionably, accept our beliefs as universal truths. Hence, we are not open to opposing viewpoints or to change.
This does not mean that we should abandon our discernment and be too easily influenced by the winds of change. Flexibility of mind also requires the strength of mind to discern what the appropriate truth is in any given moment and to decide what action, if any, to take – adjustment to change.
So, what kind of flexible is your flexible? How do you respond to change? In what ways is your body-mind stiff?
In yoga, self study is called svadhyaya. As things are changing around you, take a few moments to be self vigilant. Be aware of your reactions and response to situations. Remember, that no situation is inherently stressful. How you respond to an event determines your level of internal peace and equanimity.
“But many-visaged is the cosmic Soul:
A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate.
A sudden turn can come, a road appear,
A greater Mind may see a greater Truth,
Or we may find when all the rest has failed
Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change.”
– Sri Aurobindo, Savitri
