I’ve never been a very flexible person. Even when I was 6 years old and went to gymnastics classes 3 times a week I was never able to do the side splits. Once I managed the front splits, that was it. But I was strong so I never thought much about flexibility.
Thus it was not strange to me when I discovered a few years back that my hips felt very tight. I figured that was just my body being itself, especially since I was training in karate 4 nights a week. So who could blame those poor hips? Luckily I had just discovered yoga and my local studio offered a 2 hour hip opener workshop. Great timing to get those muscles loosened and bones back in order, I thought.
Little did I know that in after those 2 hours I would feel a sense of lightness and deep emotional connection, but that is exactly what happened. As I loosened my tight hips out poured the emotions I had bottled up in there over the past years. I suddenly found myself crying on my yoga mat and I didn’t understand why.
Some people probably won’t believe that we can store emotions in our hips (since there are no studies to prove it), and if you had told me before the workshop that I would release feelings of grief, loneliness, anxiety and fear by doing pigeon post and happy baby for 2 hours I would have laughed you out of the room. I simply hadn’t experienced the healing effect of hip opening work before, so I didn’t know any better. And sure, it may be more true for some people than others. If you have no issue with tight hips that may not be something you’ll ever tap into. For me it felt liberating.
Now you may ask, “Bea what does this have to do with coaching?”
Well, dear reader, thanks for asking. The answer is that our mind doesn’t live separate from our body. It’s all connected! Your physical and mental states are depending on each other.
If you ever feel “stuck” with your body or your thoughts, try stretching out those hip flexors (or any other muscle group you feel tension in) and see if you find some relief. You may even gain some clarity and find yourself less stressed.
And by you, I mean myself. It’s time to get back into the stretching game, so I wrote this post as a reminder to and commitment for myself. You’re all my accountability buddies now.