No need to be flexible to do yoga!

I’ve heard so many times people saying: “Oh no I can’t do yoga, I’m not flexible enough!”. Well believe it or not I’m  a yoga teacher and I’m not flexible!

When I first started yoga 5 years ago, i could barely touch my knees when I was bending forward. Uttanasana was a nightmare, Paschimottanasana was hell.

I never thought I was not flexible enough to do yoga, I just thought I would never do hard poses like Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana, or worth Hanumanasana.  But, when I’ve started practicing more than 3 times a week, I realize all the progress I was making.

The good thing when you’re not flexible is that you don’t have to go deep in a pose to have the benefits of it. Being  too flexible can even be a problem, you can hurt yourself, because you have to go very deep in  a pose to feel it. On the other hand, when you’re not flexible, it’s a little bit frustrating to see those people with their feet behind their heads. i know yoga is not about ego, and you’re not supposed to look at the people around you in a class, because it’s YOUR practice, but let’s be honest it took me a long time to absorb that part of yoga, and my first 2 years I kept looking at that girl who could do whatever she wants with her body, while I was struggling to reach my feet in forward fall.

When iI’ve decided to take a teacher training, a little voice inside of me was telling me I was a fraud, and that everybody in the training would somehow come from “Le cirque du soleil”, and that I will be ridiculous. so I started practicing more, and enjoyed it even more.

And hat’s how it happened, first I was not paying attention to that super flexible girl/guy anymore, or if I did it was just to appreciate how beautiful she or he was in their practice. Then I started to do things I couldn’t dream of a few years ago (mostly because I was not trying enough!).

When I was 12 years old I was going to a gymnast club for kids and teenagers, and I was trying very hard to do the splits. I never came close to it. Never thought I would do it one day. Never tried again. Last week end (a few decades later lol) after a nice practice, I was walking by the beach and i decided to give it a try. And here I was: doing a split, not a perfect one, but closer than I’ve ever been before!

So yes yoga is for the non flexible people, you will improve, get rid off that stiffness, and feel so much better in your body! And the feeling you’ll have when you’ll manage to do something you thought was impossible… Nothing can beat that, the feeling that finally you communicate properly with your body. So may be you should give it a try?

Stay tuned, Namaste