How to Be More Flexible - Tips to Increase Your Flexibility

Flexibility is the ability to move muscles, to cause flexion of a joint, to move or tense a muscle by contraction.
Flexibility is also the ability to adapt to new or changing conditions.
The tips I give you to increase your flexibility are simple, common sense methods.
Why does flexibility matter? Flexibility can mean the difference in comfortable physical movement as opposed to painful and stiff movement.
Flexibility allows maintaining a comfortable balance between what we want and what we get.
We live in a changing world, what worked yesterday may not work today.
A person who can go with the flow is much more successful in coping with the stresses of daily life.
Flexibility in thought co-exists with the ability to have an open mind and acceptance of the unexpected.
Being flexible in thought lowers blood pressure, reduces the onset of some cancers, reduces heart disease and stroke.
Physical flexibility gives us the ability to move comfortably, to sit, move around, and sleep with less pain.
Physical flexibility lowers blood pressure, reduces the onset of some cancers, reduces heart disease and stroke.
The case for flexibility is solid, so how do we attain flexibility?

1. Stretching: Stretching our muscles causes tendons and muscle fibers to lengthen.
   The longer the fibers the more you can increase the size of the muscle.
   Stretching our thought patterns, stepping out of our comfort zones allows us to accommodate changes without undue discomfort.
   
2. Endurance and Practice: Keep on keeping on will produce stronger and more pliable muscular movements.
   Many small movements maintained over time bring greater results than short-term rapid movement.
   Practice thinking out of the box, read different mediums, immerse yourself with information that is out of your usual pattern.
   At first you may just endure a different viewpoint, with practice your comfort level will increase, embracing the viewpoint is not required.
   
3. Patience: Flexibility of muscles-physical or mental does not happen in an instant.
   Allow yourself time as you gradually become more flexible in your bodily movements.
   Allow yourself to soak in opposing thoughts of your co-workers and peers, your way of thinking will not instantly change.
   
4. Acceptance: Change is difficult, often painful.
   As you stretch your physical muscles and attain more flexibility you may hurt in places you never knew existed.
   Your mental muscles are also becoming more flexible, new horizons open for you.
   You find yourself out of your comfort zone more often and are Okay with it.
   
5. Rejoice: Stretching your muscles, enduring the practice for the long-term, patience learned and self acceptance are your rewards.
   Pat yourself on the back! With your newfound muscle flexibility you may actually be able to make this movement painlessly.
   With your increased flexibility in thought the prison doors of your mind open.
   A whole world of adventure awaits you.
   
6. Reward Yourself: Your old rigid, inflexible self is gone.
   You have remade yourself and are ready to reap the rewards of a flexible lifestyle.
   Go places and do things never expected.
   Visit people and places where customs are different from yours, enjoy them without stress.
   

The tips I have given are perhaps not the step-by-step blueprint you may have expected.
These tips, or suggestions will help you to increase your flexibility physically and mentally.
Being flexible in body but inflexible in mind or vice versa will not serve you as well as dual flexibility.