Want to be psychologically flexible? Practice the Triple A

As a yoga teacher, I encourage my students to work on their physical flexibility. Our bodies work better when our muscles and ligaments are flexible. While it can be challenging to hold that hamstring stretch for five more breaths, the patience to tolerate discomfort in the body is worth the reward. We feel less stiff, looser, and have more freedom in the body. More freedom allows us to be nimble, to regain our balance when we wobble, and even to try a hard pose we maybe thought we couldn't do!

I often tell my students that the discipline we need to practice on our yoga mat also helps us with what we need to practice off the mat. Practicing psychological flexibility is a good example of this. We can work toward psychological flexibility in our lives using these three steps (I call them the Triple A):

Awareness: Notice what's happening, inside and outside of yourself. Be an observer of yourself and your circumstances without getting caught and tangled up in your experience.

Acceptance: Pause and allow your emotions and thoughts to be present inside you without either pushing them away or clinging to them. Try to stay curious and non-judgmental.

Action: When you feel grounded in a sense of calm and self-regulation, then take action steps toward what matters to you.

Learning how to accept and flow with our emotions and thoughts results in more freedom in our psyche. Tolerating and staying present to our feelings can help us see ourselves in the world with more clarity and embrace our feelings and ideas with more compassion. We then are better prepared to take the steps that feel right and true for us.

Here is a physical practice to represent the flexibility you want to encourage in your mind:

Standing with both feet firmly planted, slowly sweep your arms up to the sky with a deep breath in. Feel the flexibility in your arms. Lift your gaze, press your heart and throat to the sky, pause. Feel the openness across the front of your heart. Think "I'm Aware."

With a long slow breath out through the mouth, fold at the hips and bow as you sweep your arms down toward the earth. Let your head hang low. Feel the backs of the legs open. Be patient, don't force the stretch, wait. Think "I'm accepting."

With a deep breath in through the nose, root down into the earth and rise up with the power of your strong legs. Bring your hands to your heart in prayer, and stand tall with feet wide in mountain pose. Think "I'm ready to take action."

Try this psychological flexibility practice before reacting when emotions or thoughts threaten to overtake you. Be patient with your psyche so injury doesn't occur to your soul, as you must be patient with your body so injury to your muscles doesn't occur.

As we train our body, so we train our mind. As the body learns, so does the mind.