How do you feel in your heart? Expansive or closed off from taking risks. Do you feel that your life may have become smaller as you have stayed within known limits and safe environments? The way we live may also affect how we feel within our physical body as well as psychologically.
There are 4 ways we commonly ‘shrink to fit’ in our day-to-day lives …..something we may think about when we buy a pair of jeans or lulu lemon yoga clothing (pre shrunk!) but do we realise how many ways our own bodies (& minds) shrink to fit our world.
1. Hamstrings…if we sit all day with our legs and hips bent then the muscles that fill the back of our thighs…our hamstrings…will shrink to fit the available space. If our knees and hips are continually bent by sitting, or riding a bike, then our hamstrings will become notably shorter and tighter. This can pull on our lower back and may result in back ache and postural changes. 
2.Somewhere else that commonly shrinks to fit is the area around the front of our shoulders. Especially if we sit a lot, driving or at a computer. The muscles, the pectorals (the ‘pecs’) that run from the front of the tip of the shoulder to the breastbone often shorten when we spend much of our time with our arms & shoulders forward. This could be working at a desk, on a laptop, driving, or feeling less confident and hunching the shoulders forward. This shortening can result in postural changes and rounding forward of the upper back or letting the chin drop forward, straining or tensing the shoulder muscles. It can also affect the way we feel, closing us inward and preventing us facing the world with an open heart.
3.If the backs of the legs and/ or the front of the shoulders have ‘shrunk to fit’ then often the front of the hips will shorten also. These hip flexor muscles, the psoas and surrounding muscles, are sometimes described as the emotional muscles as they shorten and tighten when we feel scared or emotionally vulnerable as well as through daily postural habits. We may curl up into a foetal (scared hedgehog!) position protecting our vulnerable underbelly or encourage shortening through sitting at a desk or driving long distances. 
These areas, the front of hips, backs of thighs and front of shoulders are all lengthened and strengthened gently in a well-structured yoga class. This combines with the self-awareness we can develop through yoga practice, which can help us to be aware of the habits, and emotional states that may result in this shrink to fit. Self-awareness if often the first stage in changing our habits.
4. The fourth way if often the sneakiest. This is the ‘shrink to fit’ we may do in our lives. If we stay within our comfort zones and allow these comfort zones to shrink to fit our day-to-day lives. Forgetting to expand our horizons or try new things. The more we open our hearts to new experiences the more we allow our lives as well as the front of our shoulders to broaden. The more we stand tall and explore new places the more we lengthen our hamstrings and may also find the corners of our mouths lengthening upwards. So maybe try something new, open your heart to a new opportunity or just relax and lie back with your arms out at shoulder height, palms upward and enjoy the stretch in your shoulders. Stop being as concerned about the external world as it is often these worries that close you in on yourself. Instead allow yourself to blossom from the inside and grow into the person you wish to be.
So lets allow yoga to reduce our natural tendency to shrink to fit. Both physically and emotionally. Getting us out of our constant sitting, closing forward and turning inward and encouraging a heart opening, broader happier view of the world.