I Stretch Every Day. Why Am I Still Tense?

If you’re still tense after taking yoga classes, you're not alone. The layers of everyday tension go deep, and feeling tense again soon after your class is not because you’re inflexible, or because you don’t “get” Yoga.

The real reason is that your body is doing something in the background that you’re not yet aware of.

And this is something to celebrate because it means that the problem is NOT your body. Rather it is the way your movement system is coordinating itself. And that can be changed! Your postural system relies on patterns of balance and movement that you have repeatedly practiced over years.

For example, if you tense your shoulders each time you reach for an object, you will also tense your shoulders each time you reach down to your yoga mat. Over time, your tense shoulders will affect your neck and spine, rib cage and pelvis, and mess with their balance. These are the kinds of “hidden” patterns that dictate your posture and ability to move.

The good news are that as soon as you learn how to redirect those hidden, unconscious patterns by making them conscious with the help of a highly trained embodied posture coach, things will start to shift without needing to stretch deeper, or you putting in more effort.

It’s about doing less: less effort, less “trying hard”, less going for an end and more enjoying the process, more awareness for the present moment experience of your body. It’s about creating less tension to begin with. It’s about understanding what set’s you up for tension, the origin of tension in your mind, your emotions, your muscles, your thinking.

Physical tension is not something that can be fixed with exercises because ultimately, it's a mental issue that needs the right kind of targeted self-awareness to prevent it from happening. And as soon as you become aware you have new choices that help your body to let go on its own.

When you learn to move with less effort, a whole new space opens up inside and around you, literally and figuratively. That’s the root of true flexibility:  not how much or how deep you can stretch but the choice to use less effort.

This is a process you can learn by joining my private 1x1 DISCOVER YOUR EFFORTLESS BODY program. If you want to learn more click here.❤️