Flexible body, flexible mind

I’m currently taking a flexibility class once a week to improve, well, to improve my flexibility (pretty self-explanatory), primarily in my legs (splits), back (backbends), and shoulders (general mobility).

Something the instructor said that stuck out to me was that for people like us, well into adulthood, in order to reach a long-term flexibility goal, whether it be landing that middle split or achieving contortion-like backbends, it’s about easing into it and doing the day by day stretches that just hit the threshold where you can still rest comfortably without feeling pain, rather than forcing yourself into an intense stretch to try to get to that final goal. It’s the daily actions that over time will lead into that final goal.

That’s kind of good life advice isn’t it? Maybe something I can internalize as I work towards my own life goals, especially the shorter term goals (get a job, get sponsored) during a moment where I’m feeling overwhelmed that all I want to do and all that needs to get done. It’s to a point that I’m developing rashes over my face and neck because my body loooves to physically manifest stress and anxiety, almost as if to try to expel it out of my body. It happens when it’s that most insidious layer of anxiety that lurks deep inside, unknowingly infecting everything you think and do, and over the years it’s manifested as IBS, hemorrhoids, eczema, and now a face rash. I think it’s time to get back into meditation, don’t you think?