Namaste.

I wouldn't say I was exactly built for yoga. Thanks to genetics, my hamstrings likely resemble steel cables rather than stretchy fibrous tissue. Thanks to years of hauling Catholic-school backpacks, my upper back and shoulders are slightly rotated forward, and thanks to a serious pension for high-heels and a love for pounding the pavement, my hips are all sorts of cockeyed.

Needless to say, I'm not all that limber, a quality I always assumed was necessary to participate in a yoga class and not look like a fool. After all, your beloved Climber was actually kicked out of gymnastics class at the ripe age of 7. "Mr. and Mrs. D, I think your daughter would be more well-suited for another sport, perhaps."

After that ego blow, I had no desire to enter a class that would feature people twisting and turning and bending and curling, until I realized the following:

• The baseline principles of yoga are not associated with flexibility, and,
• I was really just making excuses.

For years, I had somewhat of a Hollywood romance with yoga. On-again, off-again, love-hate-love. I've actually always loved yoga, but for the aforementioned "reasons" never actually stuck with it. It was only until I started looking at yoga as a means to mend, strengthen, and nourish my body, rather than a flexibility contest, that I finally was able to commit to the practice.

If you've never tried a class, take it from someone who will likely always be a novice: yoga will help develop your mind, lengthen your body and lift your spirits. Unlike so many other forms of exercise, it probably won't put undue force on your joints; you will not be asked to catch anything, nor will you be expected to balance on a beam. No one cares whether you can do a back bend and you won't be a better person if you can bring your foot over your head. Yoga does not judge and it doesn't critique. Yoga exists to make you connect your body with your mind to make them a powerful, united force.

And I guarantee the instructor will not tell your parents to put you in another sport.

Keep Climbing,
ELD