Not too long ago my wife and I went on vacation to an incredible wellness resort in the Dominican Republic. Truth told, we didn’t really do all that many “wellness” related activities. We did beach front yoga a couple times, got a massage, did a mud wrap, but in the end the wellness took a back seat to eating a bit too much, drinking a bit too much, and spending time in the sun.
Which probably did far more for our mental wellness than our physical.
The yoga classes were great, and being in the Dominican they had more in common with hot yoga than regular yoga. My flexibility isn’t great, but the classes were still amazing, especially after the yoga instructor said something really insightful:
“Yoga has more benefits for someone who is NOT flexible, than someone who is…….the stretch is the workout!”
If the stretch is the workout then how much benefit is the person who can put their forehead on their knees getting? A super flexible person is getting FAR less of a workout than the person that can’t touch their toes!
When you think about it, it makes a ton of sense, but unfortunately too many of us have lost the ability to feel comfortable looking like amateurs. We see social media posts of people who have been doing yoga (or anything) for years, and since we don’t look like pros right from the start, we decide to not participate at all.
The painful truth is that with EVERYTHING in life (including yoga) we need to look like amateurs before we can look like pros. There is an incredible amount of power in being comfortable looking like a rookie long enough to become a pro!!
Mind Flush - My S.H.E.T.T. Blog 