by Sun & Moon teacher and guest blogger Jen Ebbert
As the world around us hastily changes, we find ourselves having to pivot and shift gears, bending and reshaping in order to stay vital. As yoga practitioners, we are often praised and admired for being moldable and contortable, and as human beings, we're naturally built for a certain degree of flexibility.
Ease of movement is a beautiful gift of our complex and brilliant nervous system, which thrives on redundant motor neurons that help us take what's thrown at us (a strong wind, an emotional blow or a potentially deadly disease) and literally stay upright and functioning without our conscious awareness. We don't necessarily access this amazing capacity of the body and brain on a regular basis, but we do get glimpses of it in times of extreme need as it busily organizes, sweeps out, and forges new pathways behind the scenes.
But on the road to flexibility, we must be on the lookout for significant potholes. Hitting those at high speed risks losing the integrity that defines and holds us together, and many of us move so fast that we don't realize we've gone beyond safe boundaries until something breaks, whether it is a tendon or a heart.
In our asana practice as in our lives, we benefit from moving in a healthy range of motion that functionally supports and nourishes who we are rather than shape shifts us into what we think the world wants us to be. And as we celebrate our suppleness and malleability, we can also seize the opportunity for radical change – both within and around us – to move in mindful ways that define our edges, outline safe boundaries, strengthen our instabilities, and stabilize our proverbial core.
Navigating our way through our own bodies and alongside each other requires great and careful attention, with some choice guideposts to point the way. It is in service of the greater tenets of yoga (non-harming, truth, contentment, self-study, and discipline) to strive for balance as we tend to our habitual patterns, and to heal and be whole so that it may be echoed both deep within and all around.
~ JE
Join Jen Ebbert for weekly hypermobility-informed vinyasa classes at Sun & Moon, and for a special workshop this Sunday to explore these ideas on the mat. In Too Flexible? Hypermobility and Yoga, you'll learn about the challenges of hypermobility, the compensations that happen within the body, the inherent glorification within yoga culture, and tools for keeping your yoga posture practice safe and meaningful.
This workshop is ideal for anyone involved in learning, practicing, or teaching yoga postures, and will help bring awareness to best practices around helping to keep us injury-free with steadiness and ease. Sun July 24, 2p, in-person or on Zoom. Recording available for 30 days. Click here to register!