FLEXIBLE BODY ⇄ FLEXIBLE MIND
There are many reasons why having a flexible body is essential to our health and well-being. As a young child I trained daily on rhythmic gymnastics and dance and I was very flexible because both gymnastics and dance require extreme stretching of muscles, tendons, and ligament as they also work aggressively on the mobility of the joints.
Although the benefits I gained thought the training are unlimited, and I will be forever grateful, at the time I also got a few injuries that prevented me from performing certain skill sets and that made my body and mind feel constricted. A few times I had to skip training due to physiotherapy appointments and that was something that was the worst thing in the world for me as I started to feel left behind and incapable to follow up with my training.
Luckily my injuries were all going away with time, but the horrible feeling of having to skip some stretching exercises even after my recovery to prevent future damage was making my daily training limited, and so I began to lose my passions. It all got to a point where I had to make a decision between dance and rhythmic gymnastics and due to all the pain and tension I chose to stop gymnastics and train just in dance as it didn’t require me to use my injured body parts as much.
So the tension in my body had a very big impact in my career paths.
Later on I discovered the many ways of how I could use my gymnastics skills in my dancing and that was a whole new adventure for me. I started to train again in my flexibility and the changes in my awareness and modifications in my perspective became my daily occurrences. I found myself being more ethical and principled, showing greater integrity, and enjoying doing the things that are good for me. Not only that, but I began to live more and suffer less, experience everything about energy and spirit, living timelessly.
Every tension in your body is a reflection of how you live your life. You will discover that the joys and problems of the world are also reflected in your body. Stretching allowed me to experience those interconnections and the oneness to life and to powers greater than myself.
When your body is so tight you can’t move your mind begins to take on those same patterns. This begins to limit your thinking and your ability to respond to it. But when your body is flexible you’re able to respond with greater fluidity to physical stressors, diverting or challenging the tension or resistance to the appropriate places. This is due, in part, to greater freedom in the joints. Your ability to respond physically and mentally can prevent even injuries.
I only wish I knew that back then!
The same holds true for your mind. When your mind is fluid and flexible it can respond to situations and interactions with others with the potential for more and greater possibilities. This tends to free up the physical, mental and emotional response.
Sometimes, I have a few people come at me and say I “stretched” and got nowhere. Every time there was discomfort, I thought to myself "ouch, this sucks, it hurts, I’m so INFLEXIBLE" I see flexible people doing what I thought were "crazy" things with their body, and look impossible for myself. That’s the perfect example of an inflexible mind.
When you force your body to be flexible (like my rhythmic gymnastics training) it responds back with soreness and ache and that intrigues your mind to give up. It’s in our nature. But what’s also in our nature is flexibility.
Flexibility is everywhere! It is the same quality, whether it is found in a plant, a building, a material, a human body or a human mind. Flexibility is the ability to adapt, to be willing to change, to be open, to bend and to respond with sensitivity. It is the opposite of rigidity. So no matter how much you push your body to perform different flexibility skills, if your mind doesn’t adapt to all the different possibilities your body will hurt in response. A rigid mind is full of fixed habits and strong views on what is right and wrong, good and bad, intelligent and stupid, just and unjust etc.
This principle extends even beyond just our physical limits, a flexible mind in being open to various perspectives is the key to unlocking hidden potentials in our bodies.
A flexible mind is open to new ways of viewing the world; it is not prejudiced. Spiritual traditions value mental flexibility for our wellbeing and evolution. It is not hard to understand why, as it is through the mind that we observe the inner life of the heart. The spiritual journey of the heart is full of wonders, taking us into a vast inner universe. There is no room for rigidity when venturing into the unknown!
Becoming more flexible connects you with positive life changes while it disconnects you from objectionable parts of your life. The wonderful connection between your body and your life can be directly experienced from stretching. As you become more flexible by practise, your spiritual energy is unleashed. You'll find yourself getting up early, stretching, eating well, exercising throughout the day, having fun at work, and losing track of time because you are revealing in life, enjoying everything moment by moment, becoming more conscious of what you truly desire.
Flexibility teaches you to escape the bondage of the clock. It gets you out of your head, and turns off the internal noise. As you learn to resist maximally when stretching, your body will naturally employ greater levels of tension while simultaneously relaxing you. It takes unimaginable levels of tension and stress out of your entire creation leaving you feeling a mental lightness by unwinding your mind and heart.
The mind needs to be cleaned and refreshed just like the body, and if done regularly it brings stillness and calm, so that the mind is able to regain its natural flexibility.
In conclusion, being flexible has definitely made me appreciate the true nature of my mind and understand how to extend it in different ways just like my body. Stretching has become one of the most important parts of my life as it makes me feel awake, truly alive and untouched by old thinking patterns. Freedom in being myself.
I hope I have inspired you to reflect on your wellbeing and start to enjoy feeling your mind and body stretching way beyond what you thought possible.
Follow me on this flexibility journey by checking out my Online Stretching Classes on the top of the page, where you can practice on your body and minds flexibility even from home!
Lots of love,
x Katerina
