Are You Flexible?

When you think about flexibility do you picture yourself bending down to touch your toes or is your first thought about having a flexible mind?

While flexibility generally refers to your physical body’s ability to move through its full range of motion in a fluid way, without pain or difficulty, the mind can become rigid and inflexible, too. Either way, being flexible nourishes your mind, body and soul on the journey through life.

Especially as we age, there are many benefits to staying physically limber and supple. Being able to reach for things on shelves, stand up from a chair, maintain your balance are all factors that can increase your ability to remain independent. Your quality of life can improve, with fewer aches and pains. Posture is affected if you begin to stoop over in a fixed position, compressing your organs, which impacts your digestion, so being mindful of these things allows you to alter them.

What can you do to become more flexible? For your body, keep it moving to improve circulation. Gentle stretching and some weight-bearing movements increase blood flow. Yoga, Tai Chi, and even just walking are always good for total body movement, and they, additionally, air out your mind.

As not to become rigid in your thoughts, quiet the Dragon loop of conversation in your head in which you repeat your own thoughts to yourself again and again, shutting out new information or possibilities. Meditation allows the space to be cleared, removing old thoughts and patterns that don’t serve you, and making space for new and healthier ones that do.

Listen to differing opinions, even if you don’t change your stance, can help, as does inviting some expansive thought. Learning something new, practicing new skills, and looking at the world through enchanted lenses of options and wonder create new neural pathways. Don’t keep traveling down familiar dead end roads.

See what small and grand changes you can make in attaining an increased level of flexibility and stay enchanted.