Exploring Flexibility - What does it mean to you?

Let’s talk about flexibility, what that means for you, and what that means for healing.

Flexibility is defined as ‘the ability to bend easily or without breaking’, the ‘quality of being easily adapted or of offering many different options'. Flexibility requires being adaptable to change, and involves how we perceive and manage change - both internally and externally.

We can experience physical, mental, emotional, social and environmental flexibility. Or conversely, physical, emotional, social and environmental inflexibility, resistance or rigidity. This inflexibility is often described as attachment.

Imbedded in flexibility is the concept of learning - the ability to recognise behaviours, patterns and situations that are less than favourable to us, to regulate our present moment actions, and to contemplate an advantageous course of action. From past experience, we learn which actions work best for us, and which ones work less advantageously. Hence we can hopefully in the future adapt and monitor our situation more effectively.

Adaption is learning. Resilience is learning. Flexibility is learning. Healing is learning. 

As human beings, we are most excellent learners and wonderfully plastic and flexible organisms. We are constantly in a state of dynamic change, simply striving to survive and maintain homeostasis (general ‘aliveness’). We are also MOST excellent at making changes when they seem favourable and advantageous to us, particularly if they are pleasant experiences. ie. trying a new ice cream flavour. The dopamine released just prior to a pleasant experiences makes us FAR more likely to choose that course of action again, even if it involves a new environment, new sensations or feelings - change.

Where flexibility becomes harder, is when we are faced with changes that produce a cascade of aversive, unpleasant experiences, especially if we have experienced such uncertain states in the past.  Aversive experiences, in their own unique ways are MOST excellent motivators for our brain and body to make changes that protect us. Initially we are excellent learners and adaptors, but long after the threat or aversive experience passes, we can find ourselves locked in a rigid state of protection, fear, guarding and inflexibility.  

Healing requires flexibility - especially in the face of unpleasant, discomforting experience.

In an ideal world, when encountered with change, practising flexibility could look like we pause, close our eyes, breathe and practice mindfulness to regulate our present moment emotions before calmly and rationally deciding upon an efficient course of action.  In reality, true flexibility involves actions that oscillate between flexibility (physical & psychological), and rigidity (physical/psychological). 

True adaption is the ability to self reflect in the face of adversity, observe our reactions, behaviours and habits and work our actions around them, sometimes choosing to remain rigid, and sometimes choosing to adapt and change. 

The learning that occurs between these phases IS the true flexibility - we then become more resilient and expand our world. We create an internal and external environment that is ripe for change - WHEN we are ready to follow it. By acknowledging that life is full of change, it can become easier to confront situations consciously, learning from life’s lessons and using your learnt experience to either adjust your own behaviour.

Adaption involves experimentation with our world - interacting with our world, taking risks that are available to us (affordances), contemplating the consequences of our actions, and experiencing the consequences.  Aversive experiences, pain and stress make our world smaller - we become LESS flexible in order to protect and maintain our general ‘aliveness’ and preferably in order to flourish.  Pleasant experiences can also make our world smaller - we enjoy a sensation or experience so much, we become attached to it and do not allow ourselves to deviate from that experience, despite what else may be available to us in our environment.

Human beings are wonderful resilient, adaptable organisms by nature, yet problems often occur when we become overloaded with more change than we can handle. Whether it is our personal life, or challenges in our careers, global and economic uncertainty and turmoil or a combination of all, when the various pressures of modern life are added together, it can create uncertainty. In the face of uncertainty and overwhelm, even the most physically and psychologically of us can reach our perceived limits - our world then necessarily becomes smaller in order to sustain the energy required to do our basic tasks and jobs. There is little space for play, pleasure and little energy for change. 

Yoga is a controlled, gradual exploration of our Self to stress and change - a safe, richly contextual environment from which we can explore ourselves and our reactions to ‘stress’ and change - and learn how to adjust our actions, to grow and change. It is a physical, emotional, mental and environmental experience of flexibility, where we can safely, gradually and tolerantly explore the options available to us in response to uncertainty. We learn, adapt and grow.

Our body adapts and grows in response to the stresses placed upon it.  During asana, we experiences stress of the physical body by way of asking our body to move into postures that are challenging via the sympathetic nervous system - stimulating growth and change in our cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, neuro-immune, endocrine systems and more. We also experience situations of emotional or mental challenge in response to the challenges that are placed upon our body. Perhaps we tell ourselves it is too hard, we are weak, we can’t do something, or perhaps we feel elation, mental strength, increased capacity, confidence and contentment.  We learn, adapt and grow. 

Yoga also allows opportunities for rejuvenation, rest and deep contemplation, especially towards the end of class as we move towards longer holds in more comfortable asana such as seated forward folds, and inversions. Activation of the parasympathetic nervous system allows us to create space for the meditative and mindful elements of yoga, taking time to absorb the more subtle benefits of our practice.

Yoga can be used to train both the mind and body to adapt to new circumstances and new challenges.  We can become resiliant, flexible and self aware during times of uncertainty and change. When faced with a change in our life, whatever it may be, the ability to use yoga to tune in to how our body is responding can give us valuable time to adjust.  We can move towards better regulating our emotions and reactions, and learn new patterns that will serve us well into the future; for our internal worlds, our external worlds, and for our communities.

Healing is yoga.

Coming home to our Self.

Shala is a sanskrit word meaning “home”. A yoga shala is a gathering place for people to practice, share, experience and grow.  A sacred safe place where we can hold space for transformation, contemplation and acceptance. Together we move to strengthen the unity of body, mind, and spirit. Each class offers a creative dynamic series of poses blended together with breath, music, inspiration and self expression. The safety haven of our shala ensures that we can collectively and individually explore our full Self, for the lightness and the dark, joy and pain, stress and rest. We work towards dissolving the ego, accepting that which we cannot change, to let go of resistance and create space for radical transformation.

Often at the start of a Yoga class, we sit in a comfortable seated position, Sukhasana. Sukha, meaning comfort, lightness and pleasure, and asana meaning posture or seat. This is an embodied expression of home, a place where one can come to find ease and lightness, yet at the same time also feeling safe and supported physically, mentally and spiritually -

From Sukhasana, we can nurture Sthira - steady alertness from which to explore the Whole Self. Beginning with a sense of Sukumara, we can cultivate a sense of childlike curiosity to all that arises within our mind and body, and create acceptance to to the full expression of the thoughts, feelings, beliefs and energies that arise within us. Becoming a gentle observer of Self, we can begin to more authentically reflect upon the experiences of our lives, and the inner perceptions that form our sense of Self, our Ego. 

The journey through which our physical and mental Self takes in life is one of FEELING. We FEEL our way through the world. We are embodied and embedded in an external world that is full of rich sensory experiences, upon which we can act - both mentally and physically. The action choices that we make are influenced by our perception of this sensory world - we create stories that make sense to us regarding the events that have taken place. These stories are perceptions of a felt sensory experience - neither real nor unreal. Our perceptions are narratives that help shape and guide us along our journey. Sometimes these narratives and actions are helpful, sometimes not, but from them we can always learn, grow and change.

If we observe our whole Self and our narratives without judgement - not grasping, nor holding, fixing or ignoring, we can find peace in the present moment. It is what it is - we can let go of resistance to our stories, perceptions and experiences and start to allow, to accept and to let go of all that we cannot control. Herein lies the key to overcoming suffering and pain.

To think of this in energetic terms, this is a reflection of the prana within and around us. Between the body and the mind or between the material or physical energy and mental energy, there is prāṇa which is a powerful link between the two. It is neither the body nor, the mind.  We can think of prana as our vitality, or vital energy, ‘that which is infinitely everywhere’ ( T.V Desikachar, Heart of Yoga) and flows continuously within us, keeping us alive. Prana is the expression of our Purusha (true consciousness) and it is it, which embeds and extends us into our world and collective universal energies.

If prana is not able to flow freely, it can cause blockages that cause disruption to the flow of prana, particularly when we have more prana outside of our body than within (Yoga Yajnavalkya). These blockages, or granthi (knots) occur in both the body and the mind, manifesting as illness, disease and suffering, lack of motivation, confusion, depression, restlessness, breathing difficulties etc.

Pranayama, (ayama meaning to stretch or extend) is the practice of focusing attention on the breath. Regular practice of pranayama can clear the mind, and help us become authentic self observers. While pranayama helps facilitate the flow of our prana, it doesn’t merely enter and exit as we inhale and exhale. Prana enters the body when there is a positive change in the mind, body, and Self. Change in our mind affects the breath, and change in the breath affects our mind. 

Yoga practice is an embodied expression of our full Selves - mind, body and spirit. A journey of the Self, through the Self, to the Self.  While prana flows within and around us, continuously, ceaselessly, endlessly - we can come back to our home again and again - our seat, our safe place, our selves. Home never leaves us, we never leave it . No matter where we may travel or how much we may change, we can find steady lightness and alertness within the chaos, disorder and randomness of life.

We come home to our Self. 

We are rainbows.

We are biopsychosocial-spirtual beings. Meaning that we are complex organisms that are made up of many different parts, each unique and valid to us.


Pain is not a thing. It is a contextual, multi-factorial conscious experience. All of the different aspects of our selves influence our pain experience. Our pain experience is influenced by all of the different aspects that make up our self.


Drawing from Yogic philosophy, I have expanded the current recommended medical framework (the biopsychosocial model) from which most competent health professionals approach pain treatment, to a more comprehensive model that encompasses all parts of our Self, within our environment. This extended model allows healthcare professionals to incorporate the (just as important, yet less tangible) aspects of people’s lives such as spirituality, religion, intuition and embodied consciousness. 


 
These different parts are:

  • The BIOLOGICAL self: PHYSICAL HEALTH, DIET, ILLNESS, DISEASE, GENDER, SEXUALITY,  AGE, RACE, SLEEP, GENETICS, MEDICATIONS, DIAGNOSES

  • The PSYCHOLOGICAL self: COGNITIVE FUNCTION, EMOTIONS, THOUGHTS, FEELINGS, BEHAVIOURS, SELF ESTEEM, CONFIDENCE, CULTURE, BELIEFS, FEARS, TRAUMA,  STRESS, PERCEPTION, COPING SKILLS, PERSONALITY, MEMORY, LEARNING

  • The SOCIAL self: WORK, FAMILY, SPORT, SUPPORT, EDUCATION, FINANCES, DISCRIMINATION, ACCESS, ABILITY, DISABILITY, 

 

Yogic additions:

  • The SPIRITUAL self: INTUITION, CONSCIOUSNESS, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, WHO AM I?,  PSYCHIC MIND, ‘MIND BEYOND THE MIND’, ‘GUT FEELING’, TRUTH, UNIVERSE

  • The ENERGETIC self: VITALITY, CAPACITY, BREATH, ENERGY, CONNECTION, ESSENCE,



When we experience pain, every part of our Self influences our symptoms and how we respond to them (our behaviour) and also associated suffering (our feelings). In turn, our pain experiences influence every single aspect of our Self. 


Our nervous, immune and endocrine systems are constantly modifying to best represent our state of being within the context our our environment, to keep our Self intact and safe from threat or harm (potential or real).


Think of it as an amplification modulation system, if one area is amplified, other areas are likely to be amplified, This is to help keep us safe and protect us, to draw attention to complex needs we may have (ie. pain and potential injury or distress).   If we are in a bad or negative mood, we are more likely to experience pain. If we are having a hard time at work, if our boss is being unreasonable, we are more likely to experience pain.


Likewise, if we are experiencing pain, it is very easy for it to affect our mood, our ability to concentrate at work or perhaps our self esteem.


These contextual influences become more important and relevant the longer that pain persists. 


While this concept may sound overwhelming and incredibly challenging, it is really great news. These many complex factors mean that instead of just looking for ONE simple cause of our pain, there are many different aspects that we can work towards becoming aware of, each bringing us closer to living a life of freedom from pain.