So often I hear people tell me that they cannot do yoga because they are not flexible enough.  While I understand that many of the postures or vinyasa classes would not be appropriate for most new students, yoga most definitely assists the development of both mental and physical flexibility. 

Flexibility is a by-product of being in a comfortable and stable position (asana) and breathing, accepting, observing the benefits of the pose.  In any forward folding position where we feel stable and are not forcing the position, the gripping begins to release and the body eases into a deeper position with the exhales.  The depth may be changed by a millimeter but it is still depth! 

Sometimes the most difficult students to teach are those who are extremely “flexible”.  They don’t feel the physical boundaries that “tight” students feel.  These are the students who will ask “Now, where am I supposed to feel this?” while the rest of the class looks on with “are you kidding me?!!!” expressions.  The sensations are more elusive for the flexible students, they have to go deeper and have more patience to tap into the subtleties of the experience.  The tighter students have more accessible opportunities to find awareness.  It takes them no time to find their wall, their boundaries; they just need to find patience, not force change but breathe into the space.  The tighter students tend to have fewer injuries because awareness is less of a challenge.  

In our bodies, there is a mixture of open and constricted areas.  Those in which we are tight are our opportunities to learn, to grow, to breathe.  The areas that open easily are our chance to find the subtleties.  Both require patience, compassion and acceptance.  We are observers within ourselves… seeking balance.