We often say children are like sponges. They tend to soak up everything in their environment…sometimes even those things we wish they would not. But it is their nature to be curious, to be observant, and to lap up what is served up. As we leave childhood and go even further down the road are we over saturated with all we have learned or are we simply dried up? It may be we have reached our saturation point or we have become too complacent to to sop up anything new. But is in not important to continue to absorb? To learn. To grow. To evolve.
How do we become sponge-like again? In yoga classes, we are often reminded that incorporating twists in our practice helps relieve back pain by moving and encouraging synovial fluid to feed the vertebra. It also wrings out the organs and invites more blood flow to push through—detoxifying, reinvigorating. We have to do this because our bodies get set in their ways. The fluid that once coated the spine on its own, stopped doing that in our mid-twenties. Our organs, now beseeched with years of living have too many toxins to not need a little help to make things keep moving.
While all those physiological aspects are important, the bottom line is twists feel good. It feels good to rotate and squeeze and release the spine, the kidneys, and the belly. It may feel good because we are ready to squeeze out some of what we have gained in all this living and ready ourselves to soak up something new.
Our way of life, our thoughts and mindsets may be rather ingrained for some of us at this point, but there is always time to wring ourselves out—at least a bit—and be willing to allow something new to penetrate. It is a vibrant, interesting world out there…absorb it!