Sit and Reach

The other day my girls and I were talking and somehow the subject of touching your toes came up. Aly shared that when you are sitting with your legs out stretched; you should be able to touch your toes (at least according to a past P.E. teacher). You are even more flexible if your fingers can reach past your toes. Since Aly is not able to perform this type of exercise right now, Avery and I were the guinea pigs.

I was able to touch my toes and even reach past them about 5 inches, but my youngest daughter Avery could not even reach her toes. That shocked me; my young active 14 year old could not even reach her toes yet. We made jokes about how her legs were growing so fast her arms could not keep up, but this got me thinking about flexibility.

In life being flexible physically and emotionally is very important. Anything you do requires some degree of flexibility. Whether you are bending to pick something up or sit down somewhere or you are bending to someone else's ideas or ideals, flexibility is a key factor. This ability to be flexible is not something everyone is capable of as I witnessed with Avery when we did our sit and reach test here at home. I also realized that tragedies happen because of the inability of some people to be flexible and see that there are two sides to every story, and sometimes one side might hold more truth then another. Flexibility hands you the opportunity to explore the other side in a respectful and thoughtful way.

I am delighted that I can touch my toes and even reach past them, however, I wonder how emotionally flexible I am? I think of myself as someone who is thoughtful and interested in a balanced understanding of others, but when it gets right down to the wire, there are some things that snap the band and I lose all flexibility. I imagine that is how it is for most of us. We are happy to bend and stretch to make things work for everyone, but there is a point where you have no more stretch left and you snap. It kind of reminds me of the constant reminders I give my kids about things around the house, suddenly one day I reach my limit with the reminders and the flexibility snaps and I speak my mind, that's when I hear "Jeez Mom you don't have to yell!"

As I step out into the world today, I am going to practice some emotional sit and reach exercises. Something along the lines of waiting patiently and thoughtful understanding will be on the agenda. Nothing to strenuous, since I am not sure if my emotional flexibility is at par with my physical flexibility yet. Maybe later today the girls and I can practice our emotional flexibility skills together too. That should be interesting