Practice Point #65 - Flexible Mind Over Body

I received a question from Danielle from the USA. Their question is...

How might someone who is very stiff after 4-5 years of practice in Iyengar yoga continue to show up to the mat shifting a fixed mindset into a growth mindset?

I love this question because it raises a very common hump I see students face and which I have also faced myself.

We have this notion that yoga will make our bodies more flexible and when this is not experienced we challenge the method.

The flexibility needs to come in the mind first. If the mind is rigid, the body is also rigid.

Can you be less attached or fixed in the mind with how you do a pose? Not only how you do the pose, but what the outcome of the pose is?

If the mind is fixed on achieving flexibility that looks a certain way, (like touching your face to your shins in paschimottanasana or getting one’s heels to the floor in dog pose), we are limiting ourselves by our thoughts of something being a certain way.

If the mind can simply observe the body in practice, and shift one’s focus from a particular outcome to experiencing whatever presents itself at the moment we are not only practicing yoga but becoming flexible... in the mind and soon the body will be too.

This does not mean being lazy or giving up halfway in the practice of the asana. One has to have a discriminative mind when one is practicing and practice honesty with oneself. We have to question our actions and choices and engage in what we are doing, with curiosity and compassion.

This is what practicing yoga is really all about... not the postures and becoming stretchy:)

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