Have you ever stretched yourself?
Not in the physical way a dancer or a keen yoga student might, but in the way that helps you break through personal barriers so you can experience a life far richer than you have in the past?
Stretching yourself mentally helps you turn your life into a fairytale adventure where you live your ‘happily ever after’ daily.
Just as the body is pliable – we see this when someone stretches the body on a regular basis, they get more flexible, more able to contort their body into strange yet inspiring shapes.
Sure, it takes time and patience and the commitment to moving through each layer of resistance.
But stay with it, despite the pains and challenges, and before you know it, you’re doing the splits (and so much more!).
So now lets apply this concept to our mind.
Our mind is no different to our body.
The two are interconnected.
The more you stretch yourself – your abilities, your knowledge and your imagination – the more you step into your true self, without all the conditioning that holds many people back.
Perhaps you’ve taken on the belief that your body is not flexible and so you never sit down to stretch it.
As a result you become stiff, experiencing aches and pains at an early age.
What happens if you take this approach with the mind?
Same thing.
You limit yourself in your abilities and thus, your experiences.
You live in the soot, never experiencing the ball in all it’s glory.
You’re the Cinderella minus the fairy godmother.
Scientists say that stretching the mind – doing activities that push it outside of what it knows – helps ward of Alzheimer’s disease.
You hear of people learning new languages, taking up the guitar, reading, doing puzzles.
What about learning about yourself?
How many people actually take the time to go within and find out how to stretch?
How to be more flexible?
Why?
Because people don’t know where to start.
Just as a dancer needs to learn how to stretch correctly so he/she doesn’t pull an injury, so too do we humans need to learn how to stretch our capacity for love, happiness, nourishing relationships, financial freedom, a career that we’re enormously passionate about.
Without that guidance, it can be a difficult road to navigate.
Resistance comes up when we stretch ourself, be it physically or mentally.
And it’s those who are able to push through that resistance who get the results. Dancers, just like successful business people don’t become an overnight success.
They need to do the prep work.
They need to continually stretch themselves, have someone lead the way until they learn how to follow their own inner knowing.
I love this quote by spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: ‘Sound when stretched is music. Movement when stretched is dance. Mind when stretched is meditation. Life when stretched is celebration.’
That says to me, that the most beautiful things in life come from being stretched.
And it is only when we stretch ourself beyond our perceived limits that we experience true joy.
All growth involves some level of discomfort.
But the discomfort is short-lived.
The growth is forever.
So let me ask again: How flexible are you?
And are you willing to stretch even further to be super flexi and thus, super happy?
Flexibility in today’s world is crucial if you wish your life to be a beautiful dance as opposed to a stiff plank of wood.
If you’d like to learn how to go within so you too can stretch yourself out of your current shackles, I invite you to enroll in the Remarkable Relationships online course where we will teach you how to stretch through your personal barriers so you can enjoy a life of freedom and happiness.