Have you ever wondered why people get hooked on yoga? Who has time for stretching and holding poses with all the other activities we have to do? My exercise is much more important and necessary than taking a yoga class. That would explain why it took me until age 52 to finally fall in love with yoga. I tried yoga a few times years ago. I gave up thinking that I would never get as flexible as all these other people were and it was going to take too long to see any progress. Then I noticed at my local gym they were offering yoga classes twice a week for free to members, why not? I started going regularly and soon twice a week wasn’t enough for me. I decided that if I bought some good books, studied the poses, and read about the practice, that I could configure a class at home on my own. This is where I really fell in love with yoga. With no one there to compare to, no rushing to get to class, and no worry of what to wear or how I looked, it became simple. I came to yoga mostly because I had lost much of the flexibility in my body and had begun to feel very blocky in my movements. I wanted to have more of a flow to my walk and feeling of ease in back and hamstrings. I chose flow yoga because it was easy that way for me to extend the time of the class by doing the asanas in between other body twists and poses. Before long I had developed a very nice hour long class that I did every day. What I wasn’t prepared for and benefited hugely from were the emotional releases that came during holding of certain poses. For me mostly it was the chest and hip openers that would bring the most profound experiences. The first time I tried to hold myself up in the wheel, I felt a pop in my solar plexus and a burst of emotion as I sobbed uncontrollably. There was no pain, it was not a muscle, I am convinced it was the solar plexus chakra opening. Since that time I have had repeated incidents with other poses in other areas of my body. I use to believe that we were tight or couldn’t get into poses because we were inflexible. I have now come understand that it is the deep seated emotions that are held in these areas of the body that are what are holding us. One day I will be far from getting into a pose and the next easily binding with no trouble at all. When our body decides to release what ever is held in these areas our flexibility is restored. Of course as we practice we are rewarded with more and more openness and can further our development. Not to mention that stretching and elongating our muscles is what gives them shape and definition. Not only can we enjoy the benefits of free movement, but we can reshape our bodies while doing something we love doing. So no matter what age you are I encourage you to try yoga, you will be happy you did.