Chapter 26

In This Chapter

>- It's never too late to become a yogi!

Yoga for great physical, mental, and spiritual health >- A yoga approach to aging

Yoga poses for muscle strength, bone strength, flexibility, and mental acuity >- The joys of aging

Maybe you've flipped doubtfully through the pages of this book and have uneasily come to rest on this chapter. You think—you suspect that—you're just too old to do yoga. Isn't yoga for all those limber, energetic young people? Certainly not! Yoga is for everyone, and a regular yoga practice can be of immense physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefit to anyone who is experiencing some of the signs of aging (and that's most of us!). Many Indian yogis practice well into their hundreds. If yoga can help you live a longer, healthier life, then what have you got to lose?

Even if you've never sat on the floor or meditated, let alone tried the lotus position or the plough or the headstand, you can still give it a try. Let yoga work its magic on your body, your mind, and your spirit.

Senior yogis are often the wisest yogis of all, even if they're new to yoga. When you've walked the earth for a while, you understand a little more about yourself and about

Yoldies but Goodies!

life, suffering, and joy, simply because you've seen more of it. If you haven't practiced yoga before, now is a wonderful time to start.

Aging brings about some undeniable physical changes. As we age, we all lose muscle tissue and bone mass if we don't stay physically active and combat these changes with weight-bearing activities to build muscle and bone. Studies show that bone loss can be reversed through weight-bearing activities like walking (great for hip, leg, knee, ankle, and foot bones and joints); light weight lifting; and of course, yoga poses in which you hold, shift, and manipulate your own body weight.

Internally, you are experiencing changes, too. The great thing about yoga is that it can balance many of these internal changes in ways you might not even expect. Yoga can smooth digestion that becomes less reliable by stimulating and activating the stomach, colon, abdomen, and internal organs. Your blood vessels lose elasticity, but yoga vinyasa and pranayama techniques suffuse your body with oxygen and increase circulation to keep your entire circulatory system limber. As you age, you may find you don't sleep as well or eat as willingly. A regular yoga practice can make sleep sounder and more rejuvenating, and it can help you work up a healthy appetite, too. Yoga helps bolster a suppressed immune system and keeps all your internal organs stimulated and balanced.

Before beginning your yoga practice (or any exercise program), consult your primary care physician, who will want to follow your progress and coordinate care with your yoga instructor. Many great yoga classes are available now for seniors, which means that poses are adapted and designed to help with the specific concerns and needs of mature yogis. Ask at your local YMCA, holistic health center, health club, or senior center. You'll be surprised at how many seniors are already doing yoga!

One of the biggest concerns of people as they age is memory loss. The fear of Alzheimer's disease is widespread, and even simple forgetfulness (where did you put those car keys?) can strike fear into the heart of anybody over 40. As you age, you may have more trouble concentrating and remembering, but much of this is due to stress or the result of simple neglect. When it comes to your brain, it's "use it or lose it." Yoga offers some great ways to use that brain. Balance poses and meditation in particular keep the mind focused, clear, and as limber as a pair of legs folded into the lotus pose.

A Yoga Minute

Deficiencies of vitamins B^, B-^, and folic acid can aggravate or even imitate symptoms of memory loss, Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of senile dementia. Get enough of all three through vitamin supplements and/or food sources such as spinach, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bananas, carrots, liver, salmon, leafy greens, asparagus, oranges, orange juice, and fortified breakfast cereals. The herb ginkgo biloba has also been shown to improve blood flow to the brain and could combat age-associated memory loss. Ask your doctor about it.

Meditation Power

Seniors are perfect candidates for meditation. Your brain is so full of experiences, information, memories, and ideas that it can really use a break. For a few minutes each day, take some time to yourself to reflect on something beautiful, then let this beautiful reflection gently melt into the breath until breath and peace are all that remain.

Meditation has a wonderfully rejuvenating effect on both your mind and your body. A regular meditation practice will help you think more quickly and clearly, access information more easily, and even enjoy your mental processes more. Your thoughts will come more easily, your memory will be sharper, and you'll find that you handle life with a calm clarity you may never have experienced before.

All it takes is a few minutes each day in shavasana or sitting meditation. Relax and listen to your breathing. Become aware of the room around you and the body that houses your soul. Don't try to think or feel anything, but if you do, acknowledge it, then let it go. Practice letting your mind relax into a tranquil state, unplagued by worry, anxiety, sadness, or even happiness. Just "be" for a few minutes each day. Life will come into focus, and you'll discover all kinds of things about yourself (and you thought you knew yourself by now!). For more on meditation, see The Complete Idiot's Guide to Meditation, also by the authors of this book.

Yoga Poses for Your Whole Self

Meditation may be all well and good, but maybe you want to get moving first. Great! Any poses you enjoy will be good for your soul, but consider including poses that

build bone strength, muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and concentration to keep your muscles, bones, and mind strong.

While we certainly don't assume that just because you are over 65, you are less able to do any pose in this book than someone who is 25, we have adapted some of the following poses to meet the needs of seniors who are new to yoga; may have been living a sedentary life; or suffer from bone loss, muscle weakness, or joint pain. Feel free to take the following suggestions—or not—according to your individual needs.

The following poses are excellent additions to any yoga routine but can be particularly beneficial for seniors (check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program):

>- Standing poses are great for developing strength and physical control (see Chapter 13, "What Do You Stand For?"). Try the

mountain pose, the three warrior poses, and the lightning bolt pose to start.

>- Balance poses (Chapter 13) are excellent for building strength and, once you've mastered them, confidence. They hone concentration, giving your brain a workout right along with your bones and muscles. The tree pose is a good balance pose to start with. Be patient with yourself. Balance poses will become easier with practice. Don't worry about holding any pose for a long time. Use a wall or chair for support at first if it helps you, then move a few inches away once you feel secure. You can practice other poses while sitting in a chair. Use your imagination, and do what your body tells you it can do.

>- Practice the downward facing dog (see Chapter 18, "Take the Forward Path") each day. It builds upper and lower body strength, and it also has many of the advantages of the inversions. Keep your knees bent. Increase

the time in the pose by increasing your breaths. For example, "This week I'll hold the pose for two deep breaths. Next week (or month) I'll take three deep breaths in the pose."

>~ If your legs tend to be weak, try standing in front of a sturdy chair (preferably one without arms) and practicing the lightning bolt pose (Chapter 13). Each time you try the lightning bolt variation, come down just a little bit lower. If your legs start to feel weak or shaky, sit down in the chair and take a smile break. Stand up and try again. Slowly develop your thigh and ankle strength this way. If you have trouble reaching your arms over your head, place your hands in namaste (prayer) position.

>■ You might also find inversions strengthening and empowering. Once you feel steady and strong in the mountain pose (Chapter 13), move to the bridge, then the shoulderstand, then the plough, and then the headstand (all in Chapter 15, "Come on, Body, Let's Do the Twist"). The headstand isn't as hard as you might think, once you are centered and strong. Don't try it before you feel ready, but once you've done it, do it as often as you can. It will help you feel rejuvenated. Get your doctor's okay on this. Once he or she sees how strong yoga practice is making you, your doctor may want a few yoga lessons!

>~ When appropriate or necessary, practice sitting poses in a chair for support, but make sure you maintain good posture! If your back muscles aren't used to working, it may feel better to slump, but bad posture is ultimately more taxing and detrimental to your physical health than good posture. Imagine a string

pulling you upward from the crown of your head. Feel as if you are suspended from the string, barely touching the seat of the chair. The longer you do this, the easier it gets and the better it feels.

Stop slumping in that easy chair! Practice sitting poses in a straight-backed chair to keep your spine and back muscles healthy and properly in line. Notice how the chest and internal organs of digestion are compressed in a slouch? Sitting up straight offers your organs a chance to work more efficiently. With practice, you'll find that sitting up straight is more comfortable than a couch potato slouch.

>- Practice the sun salutation (Chapter 16, "A Continuous Flow") each morning, and reflect on the sun's power and beauty. Other vinyasa are great for keeping muscles limber and joints mobile, but if any movement or pose is painful, don't continue with it. Arthritis responds well to exercise, but particularly inflamed joints shouldn't be aggravated.

>- Water yoga is lots of fun and helps protect bones, muscles, and joints from jarring or taking on too much weight. Many yoga poses can be adapted for different depths of water. Try standing poses in chest-deep water, sitting poses in shallow water (see the following figures). Let the water help you with the poses, and let the water's movement soothe and relax you. Your yoga teacher might even be willing to hold an occasional class at the pool or the beach. It never hurts to ask!

>- Who says walking can't be yoga? Walk with intention, focus, concentration, and mindfulness, and your daily walk in the fresh air can become a meditation session and a lesson in life. So much to see, hear, smell, feel, so much beauty, so much activity or quiet, so many or so few people or animals. Let your surroundings speak to you, teach you, communicate with you. Walk through the world awake, with your mind and your eyes wide open. Talk about a great workout!

>- The child's pose is incredibly relaxing, but it may be hard on your knees.

Try the child's pose on two chairs with folded blankets or pillows for cushioning (see the following figure). Why shouldn't you do the child's pose? You are young at heart!

>- Lie still in shavasana (see Chapter 19, "Dead to the World") every day for at least 10 minutes. This pose teaches your body and your mind how to release their tensions and troubles, simplifying your existence and moving toward unity. Everything will work better after a little shavasana!

Overall, keep in mind your particular areas of strength and weakness, then tailor your yoga program to balance both. Having lived on the earth for an impressive number of years should not keep you from attempting yoga. In fact, many yogis live to be over 100 years old and still practice each day. Don't forget breathing exercises and meditation, as well as reflections on the yamas and niyamas (see Chapter 6, "Walking Yoga's Eightfold Path"). Practice outside whenever you can, and pay attention to the natural world around you. Your fitness program, as well as your life, will be whole, balanced, peaceful, and filled with bliss.

Having the Time of Your Life

Whether you are 40 or 60 or 80 or 100, age is just a number. You know that old cliche about being only as young as you feel? How true it is (maybe that's why it became a cliche!). Even a 20-year-old can feel old if he never exercises, never breathes deeply, doesn't eat right, and doesn't live mindfully.

Wise Yogi Tells Us

The National Council on the Aging and the International Longevity Center conducted a survey of 3,000 adults in the United States, called Myths and Realities of Aging 2000. The survey found that most Americans would be happy if they lived to be 90, and 44 percent of respondents described the present as the best years of their lives—a 32 percent increase over results from the 1974 survey. The survey also revealed that most Americans favor spending more money rather than less on older people; that older people are less worried about their health, finances, and the threat of crime than they were 25 years ago; and that in the minds of many, old age begins with declining physical or mental ability, not with the arrival of a specific age.

Much of what we become is a matter of habit. We get out of the habit of exercising, or eating right, or paying attention, and slowly it becomes part of our lives. The great thing is that it works the other way, too. The more we get in the habit of moving;

eating well; paying attention; and living with purpose, compassion, and spirit, the better our lives will become.

So you say you are too old to be this or that? So what? The world is full of possibilities, opportunities, and joy. If you can't do one thing, do something else. Everyone, at any age, is limited by certain factors in life. Don't let your limits stop you. Let your abilities get you started and keep you going. Open your breath, lengthen your spine, open your chest, expand your mind.

Coping with Loss and Grief

Eventually, we all have to deal with loss and grief. The longer we're here on this planet, the more we will need to learn how to handle loss: the loss of loved ones, or health, or independence. These are all very real issues each one of us will need to confront at some time, whether for ourselves or to help another.

Yoga helps us simplify our lives, our emotions, and our material concerns. The study of yoga can help us gain perspective on what is important. It can help us detach from our competitive selves and see our bodies and minds as oases of self-discovery. Shavasana, the corpse pose (Chapter 19), helps us to explore death within life. We can also discover that the limits of our body do not define our existence. Our existence is interconnected with the joys and sorrows of all life, including the bee on the porch, the bird in the air, the snake on the path, the fish in the water. Letting ourselves be with, and be one with, all of life can open up truth to our minds and hearts. We may not know you personally, but we know one thing about you: You are worth the effort required to make a regular life into a great life. It's never too late to start living; to start practicing yoga; to start moving and bending and stretching and lifting; to start focusing, concentrating, breathing deeply, and meditating. And that's just the beginning of your transformation. There's no telling what you can accomplish with a body, mind, and spirit in full throttle.

We aren't saying you should take up skydiving or bungee jumping or water skiing (unless you really want to). But we are saying that your life is what you make it, and those who think they can't make much of their lives aren't using their imaginations. Anyone can find meaning, fulfillment, and joy in life. But you won't find it if you don't look for it. The first part of every yoga pose is visualization, and it's amazing where that visualization can lead.

So let yoga help you look. Let yoga bless you with daily renewal, energy, tranquility, contentment, even bliss. Let yoga help you to find the real you, which is ageless, timeless, and complete. That "you" can do anything. We know it. And we wouldn't want to stand in your way!

The Least You Need to Know

Yoga is an excellent way of life for seniors, improving physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

>- Meditation can bring clarity of mind to seniors, improving memory and making information seem more accessible.

>- Yoga poses that increase muscle and bone strength, flexibility, balance, and concentration are excellent for seniors.

>- Yoga can help anyone cope with loss and grief, as it encourages a move toward a simpler, more unified existence.

>- This can be the best time of your life!

Appendix A