Do You Need to be Flexible to Start Yoga? | What Yoga Really is About

Transcript

hi welcome back to my channel if you're new welcome if you're wondering who is she this girl on my screen computer tv my name is emma jean i am a certified yoga teacher of 200 hours this video is going to be the question if do i need to be flexible for yoga go ahead and stay tuned i know this is so weird i literally had eye shadow that was very warm and spring summerish that was pink and orange but i got over it and now i'm like a cool toned with a red lipstick and i'm thinking am i seasonally confused or probably you know because like more of like a christmassy look all right so a question or just a statement in general that i get a lot is do i need to be flexible or oh i won't go to yoga or i don't think i'll be good at it because i am not flexible but the truth is is that you do not have to be flexible at all there is that stigma that when you think about yoga you are in different positions and that those who practice are very flexible they can touch their toes it can create a pretzel with their legs behind their neck absolutely not true and i get where that comes from just because how we portray it online as we watch movies or tv shows that being able to do yoga you have to be flexible or you'll have a hard time practicing but in reality all you really need is yourself your body a great mindset a positive one and just to go try it out at a studio practice different kinds that you might see or think that you may like try yoga that doesn't have heat try yoga that's not as much as standing and more laying down and sitting so as long as you put yourself in that mindset that you just want to try yoga for the fun with it without that mentality of you needing to be flexible go ahead and just try it out anyone can practice it does not matter if you are flexible or not i can say though that over time once you keep practicing you may notice that you are becoming more flexible but yoga is not about flexibility yoga is more about creating a connection with your mind to your body the purpose of yoga is to really be able to focus on the present moment not to focus on the next pose that's coming or the poses that you did five minutes ago and when you're able to focus on the present moment this really helps with your mentality because then you're able to kind of take out any disturbances or anything that's distracting your mind while you're practicing you might think this is so tough and it really is it's really hard to stay present and to not really focus on the pose and think oh am i doing this right oh this doesn't feel good or i don't know if like i'm bending my knee enough or anything like that and just know that this will come over time it does not happen overnight that's why i advise students to not take a yoga class just once but try it multiple times you can't really tell if you like yoga or not after that first time and because you're new you are going to be naturally focusing on if you're doing the poses right maybe look at other students to see if you're in the right pose or if you're in the right kind of stance and you're also going to be looking at the teacher a lot so you're not able to have that mindset that brings you stillness and quietness because your mind is fled with a lot of thoughts of just being a new student in general and trying to get into these poses let me tell you i have been practicing for about seven years now which is so crazy to think about it was something that i joined right after high school because i needed or wanted to find something that was similar to the sports that i did in high school when i started doing yoga i was completely confused i had no idea what was going on i had no idea what i was doing and that is completely normal i also didn't understand how people found yoga to be relaxing i found it to be very very stressful because again i had no idea what the heck i was doing i was looking around in class i had a lot of thoughts going through my mind even though the teacher was telling me things for me to help me to quiet my voice and take out any chatterness that i had i couldn't do it and i learned that when you keep practicing over time that that will eventually start to work its way through your practice i would say i probably got that after two years of practicing everyone is different it might not take you two years for you to accomplish that but for me i was also very on and off i feel like if you practice yoga more every day you may be able to get that kind of mind-body connection less than two years maybe a year maybe six months but again everyone is so different and even though i have been practicing for seven years and i did get over that hump of gaining a quietness in my mind after the two years i do have those days where it comes and goes where i do have a lot on my mind and again that is normal just because you've practiced so many years doesn't mean that how your practice was in the beginning will come back maybe not completely towards when you first started because you already know how the poses are but when it comes to your mindset and what you're thinking of while you're practicing another thing why i like to say that you do not have to be flexible is because yoga is such a judge free zone there are so many modifications that you can take if you can't touch your toes well just bend your knees so that you can touch your toes or you don't even have to be touching your toes you can have your fingers just hang down there and be close to your toes or close to the ground if you can't grab your foot for a grip that's all right too you can reach for your toes and eventually over time if you keep just reaching your muscles or your lower back will get stronger you will become more flexible so that your hand will be able to reach your foot over time another one if you can't do the high to low plank or chaturanga the nasana you can always do a cat cow there are always different variations that you can do and people don't do these modifications because they're not flexible they may do this because they had a cervical neck surgery or they had back surgery and you'll notice that those people who are flexible still have to take modifications because of maybe past surgeries that they had or just certain body parts that they're not able to fully stretch out so never never force yourself to do a pose that makes you feel uncomfortable and you never want a pose to hurt right if it's hurting that means something is wrong when we are teaching class we do want you all to be safe this is why when we cue our poses we do cue how to get in the pose first and then after we get you in safely we are then able to tell you feel good cues you can always look at other students all day for help of how to get into a pose but never compare yourself with you to them because again every person's body is different every body habitus is different there are always different ways to do a pose you would think that i am very flexible i feel like i am just because in high school i did do cheer i did do dance but the thing is i'm very sensitive with my hips because we had to do a lot of toe touches and all that stuff and just a lot of hip opening poses some of the hip opening poses i absolutely love i think it feels good and some of them i absolutely hate like butterfly i modify that so much because you have to put your soles of your feet together right and ideally put your heels close to your glutes as possible for me i find it very uncomfortable so i like to actually put my heels as far away from my glutes as possible this leaves the stretch to not be as intense as if it's closer to my glutes but this is just how i like to do the pose and again those who are not flexible can do the pose like that if they want to i know it's so hard that we think of yoga we think of like the instagram type of post where someone is gripping on their leg and it's all the way up above their head and that's not ideal i always have to remind my students as especially myself even though i do teach yoga that it doesn't matter how it looks like what matters is how it feels so you don't want to be hurting yourself you don't want to be over stretching and hurt yourself but you do want to be safe you do want to get in the pose in the correct way and you want to make sure that you're having the best practice for yourself this practice is for you and it is understandable that when we do it in groups you are going to want to compare yourself to other people so that is something i really like to remind students as well as myself when i'm teaching and saying that you do not have to look at others you can look at others for guidance but don't look at it as a comparison do this practice for you and go with how it feels all right thank you so much for watching this video i hope you enjoyed it and i'll see you my next one bye [Music]