"But I'm not flexible" and other . . . reasons

I wish I had a dollar for every time this conversation unfolded when people learn I’m a yoga teacher.

“I know I should do yoga, but I’m not flexible.”

or

“My wife does a lot of yoga. I know I should do yoga, but I’m not flexible.”

or

“I can’t touch my toes”

Or some variation of that idea. Like the variation if the conversation turns to meditation.

“I know I should meditate, but I can’t sit still” or “. . .but I go crazy after just five minutes.”

Sigh. Who told these people that flexibility was a pre-requisite for yoga. Or that having a calm mind and a natural ability to sit still for many minutes in a row was a pre-req for meditation?

The thing is, flexibility is an outcome, not a pre-requisite for a physical yoga class. And sitting still: it’s a muscle like anything else. You have to start small. Even one minute. Seriously.

But at a deeper level these conversations belie a simple fact about yoga: it’s for everybody and every body. There’s no pre-requisite and any attempt is valuable. Flexibility isn’t the goal, a calm mind isn’t even the goal. The goal is happiness. Through self-knowledge or service. The practices we do, whether poses, or chanting, or mediation with beads or mantras or breath or all of those, are ways in to self-knowledge. And like magic they also build empathy, which can lead to an urge to serve your fellow human.

So the mantra is: my goal is simple; my goal is happiness.