I'm not flexible, I can't do yoga

Person: What do you do?

Me: I’m a yoga teacher!

Person: Oh, I’m not flexible, I can’t do yoga. Or: I tried yoga once and I’m so bad at it! Or: I’m awful at yoga, I can’t even touch my toes, etc.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this. I hold space for the fear folks have when they begin something new. If its yoga, learning to drive, speaking a new language or becoming a parent...yes, new things and experiences happen to us all the time. And thank goodness they do because otherwise we’d be dead and that’s not very much fun. But you didn’t give up on those things, did you? No, you kept going even if you didn’t know what you were doing and eventually you found your way. This is true of yoga as well.

“I’m not flexible, I can’t do yoga”. This is like saying, “I’m not strong, I can’t lift weights” or “I’m not fast, I can’t run.” But yet I hear this from new students all the time. I simply say, “start where you are.” No one walks into a gym and bench presses 300 lbs or toes the line of a marathon without doing a few laps around a track. So start where you are...and this place is always the breathe. If you show up to your yoga class and you just breath, that is enough. You don’t need to stand on your head or touch your toes to be a yogi. Maybe this happens one day and maybe it doesn’t. Letting go of the attachment to the pose and just being with the breath. I’m here for you, let’s flow together!