Yes, you CAN.

Yoga.

"I can't do that."

No, you can't DO yoga.

You can feel yoga. You can strengthen your body using yoga, and learn to listen to it even when it's only whispering to you. You can tune out the noise of life when it's too much for you with yoga. You can also struggle with yoga, and feel defeated by it. You can try to force your body with yoga, and find yourself at war with body and mind. You can surrender to your practice, and learn new things about yourself through yoga.  You can do things you never thought possible, with time, practice, and with the healing power of your heart and mind. You can learn to forgive yourself and be gentle with yourself through yoga. You can do all of these things and more; it's in you to decide what you WILL do, and at what pace.

"You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state." (Sharon Gannon) 

In my years of mentoring others through yoga, I have heard countless reasons why people think yoga isn't for them. Maybe yoga isn't your thing. That's cool, no pressure. You could give it a try once or twice and either reaffirm that fact, or dispute the myth once and for all.

"I'm not flexible" - What better reason to start a yoga practice?
"I don't have the time" - We make time for what is important.
"I don't have the equipment"- You don't need equipment. You need a mat, your mind, and your body.
"It's too expensive" - Not in Fairbury, Nebraska it isn't.
"I don't want people to make fun of me" No one is looking at you. They are self-focusing.
"I already work out, I don't need to stretch" Add yoga to your fitness, it's probably already there.
"Yoga is too easy" It's too easy if you don't fully commit yourself in mind and body.
"Yoga is too hard" It's too hard if you push yourself beyond your limits. Don't do that.
"Yoga seems weird" Yoga is whatever you want it to be. Strong, fit, soft, flowing, relaxing, meditative.

New yoga practitioners often experience a variation of some or all of those reasons which keep them from yoga. The replies to those "reasons" are limited in scope but also simple and honest.

As yoga becomes more mainstream, more popular, and more accessible, it also becomes more intimidating. Searching for "yoga poses" or "yoga vinyasa" in Google or Pinterest returns a flurry of sinewy yogi's displayed in seemingly impossible or back-breaking positions. This is yoga, but it doesn't have to be your yoga. Yoga is for the thin, the full figured, old, young, bendy, not bendy, men, women, athletes, and whatever body type and personality you can conjure.

Yoga is not about what you can't do; it's about what you CAN do. Yoga is about "yes."

I 100% believe in the statement: Yoga is for everybody, every body, anytime, anywhere. If you can breathe, you can "do" yoga.

Yoga is for everybody, every body, anytime, anywhere.