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Reflections
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Reflections
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These days, a great many of us are thinking about how to preserve and protect what we have, and we worry about what will happen if we lose it. That applies to our freedoms as well as to our freedom of movement and thought as we age.
At age 69, I think about my aging pretty much all the time. “How is my balance today? Do I feel strong? Am I still flexible enough to get down on the floor with my granddaughter? Will I be able to get back up? How can I accept inevitable changes to my life with grace and evenness?” I do have a not-so-secret plan. The yoga practice that I began at age 54 forms the foundation of my belief that I can take actions to protect and preserve what I have – physically, mentally and emotionally – and that I can continue to feel some agency over how I respond to what happens to me. It’s my firm conviction that yoga can give you that foundation as well. Yoga can help you build and maintain strength, balance, flexibility, mobility, and much more. The practice of yoga can help you develop a clearer sense of who you are, your purpose, and the actions that will help you fulfill that purpose. And it can help you develop skills to approach life’s highs and lows with equanimity. That’s a lot to get out of a practice that can be accessible, inexpensive, and designed to support you no matter what your physical condition. In a recent summary of some scientific studies on yoga for healthy aging, Mahivanan et al (2021) state that, “Yoga appears to have a wide range of benefits including increased mobility; reduced risk for slip and fall; protection against cognitive decline; increased flexibility, strength, and balance; and improved sleep and mental well-being.” There is a growing body of scientific research indicating that yoga can benefit us and, if done wisely, can help us preserve and protect what we have, throughout our life span. A lot of yoga “out there” may not be well-suited for supporting your healthy aging. There are many styles and many teachers; it can sometimes feel overwhelming to look at what’s available and choose what might suit you best, making you more anxious or less likely to try it at all. Or you try it and it’s too fast, or too hot, or it hurts, or it leaves you feeling achy or inadequate. There’s hope, though, because there are yoga offerings out there that are geared toward supporting our skillful, healthy aging. One option that you might consider is chair-based yoga, which allows you to feel secure and supported whether you are seated or standing. To get started, check out a short, free chair-based class here. If you’re interested in a live on-line chair yoga class, I welcome your input as to days and times! Please complete this short, anonymous survey: Interest in Online Chair Yoga. Preserve and protect your health and well-being!
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I was living in Sweden in the spring of 1981. My colleague Tom, an American who was both a world traveler and a proponent (and patient) of psychotherapy, said to me one day, “People always want to travel….they should take the biggest trip of all and go inside themselves.”
(It’s ironic that we were both overseas when he said that!) He spoke those words to me over 40 years ago, and he’s been gone from this earth for many years now, but I’ve never forgotten the message. My “5-year plan,” starting in college, was to go abroad for an extended stay every 5 years. I did it twice: a semester of study in France (1975) and 18 months of study in Sweden (1980-81). The plan never progressed beyond those two adventures. Many factors prevented me from implementing my 5-year plan, and I’m OK with that. It was all for good reasons – more compelling than going off on my own to an unfamiliar country and culture again. (I’m grateful for those opportunities, though – including the ability to communicate at some level in French and Swedish.) There was marriage, motherhood, and moving – many times. Career changes, cancer diagnoses, and the impedimenta of life. (Now there’s a word I love and rarely use!) Maybe Tom’s voice was in the back of my head as a reminder: whether I travel physically or not, there is a profound journey available to me at all times – the journey within. All of my life experiences have contributed to my self-awareness and self-discovery, and maybe even self-understanding. Maybe that’s partly what drew me into yoga: the invitation to turn my gaze inward. It offers unlimited opportunities for exploration. Moving the body is important for self-inquiry, but it’s only the beginning. Here’s my life plan now, not segmented into 5-year portions: to stay on the path of self-discovery and understand myself a little better every day. Yoga gives me the tools for that. I’m grateful to my friend Tom for installing those words in my mind so many years ago. February is American Heart Month. While I don’t pay a lot of attention to these national months of awareness, this one is of interest to me, and perhaps it is to you as well.
Why? Here are some things to know about heart health and heart disease: Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. (You might have thought it was cancer – that’s #2.) I’ve taken blood pressure medication and cholesterol-lowering drugs for years. I used to think that I inherited a risk of heart disease, as I looked at how many of my family members have had heart attacks, strokes, and their precursors, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol. But that is only partially true. It’s much more complicated, as many of the risks come from lifestyle factors. The Centers for Disease Control notes that “Leading risk factors for heart disease and stroke are high blood pressure, high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, diabetes, smoking and secondhand smoke exposure, obesity, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity. (Source: https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/factsheets/heart-disease-stroke.htm) Another factor leading to heart disease is chronic stress. The American Heart Association notes: “Stress may contribute to poor health behaviors linked to increased risk for heart disease and stroke, such as:
So chronic stress can actually lead to those risk factors for heart disease. These are interesting findings, especially when we look at our heart health through a yoga lens. Yoga can benefit our hearts and minds in many ways, including helping us learn to regulate our stress response. Through a slow, mindful practice, we can develop greater awareness of our own responses to stress and more skill in moving into a more balanced state after a stressful experience. Yoga is a holistic practice that includes postures and movement, conscious breathing, relaxation techniques, and meditation. It also has ethical components that give us guidelines for how to treat others – and ourselves - with compassion. Every one of those components can contribute to our heart health. Engaging in regular practice (even a brief practice!) can help us learn to self-regulate, reduce our chronic stress load, and improve our well-being. Yoga is good for your heart. February is a good month to give yoga a try or renew your commitment to regular practice. Here’s a free practice for you to try: February 2024 Self-Kindness Bundle Other opportunities if you’re in the Rogue Valley: New chair yoga offering in Jacksonville, Oregon! According to ancient yoga tradition, humans are composed of five dimensions: physical body, energy, intellect, wisdom, and heart. In this model, called the Panchamaya, these dimensions are interconnected – each level can affect every other level. For instance, a physical practice of yoga postures (asanas) can influence our energy; conversely, a conscious breathing practice can affect our physical body. Tapping into our thoughts and wisdom can affect our physical and energetic levels as well.
This model is the basis of the therapeutic use of yoga to maintain, protect, revitalize and strengthen our functioning as we age. It is a powerful way to think about how we can support ourselves (and others), in sickness and in health, and what it means to practice yoga for aging well and wisely. I recently spent a few days in the hospital, with an unplanned gall bladder surgery and the subsequent “cleaning out” of additional gall stones. From the moment I entered the emergency room, I began to call on my understanding of the five dimensions and their interconnectedness. Here are just a few examples:
Many people who know me and my passion for yoga assumed that I had to suspend my yoga practice while I was in the hospital. That was far from true. I was unable to do many postures that I usually do during my practice, but I had a rich yoga practice even during those four days in the hospital. I’m grateful for my awareness of this model and the knowledge that I could support and protect my body, mind, and heart in many ways as the medical professionals tended to my physical condition. As I continue to age, I know there will inevitably be additional physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges, and I’ll tap into – and value – the wisdom of this ancient model of human beings in their wholeness. My husband and I love the old Perry Mason show, which was broadcast for 9 seasons beginning in 1957. We both have fond memories of watching it back then with our parents. It was the highlight of Sunday evenings, even though we probably didn’t get much of it as we were quite young.
But we do like to watch it now. We started when the pandemic hit in 2020, and by now we’ve watched most episodes at least twice. We love to pay attention to the musical scores, the character development, how Perry treated his clients (and his assistant, Della!), how the actors (Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, and many others) changed, and much more. We’ve noticed something that Perry says to his clients frequently. He is a criminal defense attorney, and there is a murder in every episode, so somewhere in the first half of most episodes, he encounters the person who will ultimately be charged with murder but hasn’t yet been arrested or tried. He shares a piece of advice frequently with people who are about to be arrested for murder and they know it. “Go home and get some sleep,” he’ll say. Or “Calm down and get some rest.” That is ridiculous advice for someone waiting for the police to decide that she/he is the most likely murder suspect. As was noted in a meme I saw recently, “Never in the history of calm down has anyone calmed down by being told to calm down.” I was reminded of the ridiculousness of this last summer when I read a magazine for cancer survivors. (I’m one of those survivors!). It had an article with advice for newly diagnosed cancer patients. I can’t remember the exact words, but the idea was that it can be stressful to get a cancer diagnosis (no kidding!), and it’s good to be able to calm our nervous system and reduce our anxiety. “Calm down and get some rest.” Ok, sure, but much easier said than done. Yes of course, reducing our stress is a great idea. But if you’ve ever tried to calm yourself down by telling yourself to calm down, you know that it rarely works. That strategy may not even be possible when you’re new at it, or when you’re in the turbulence of a life-threatening illness or other situation that makes you feel unsafe, threatened, angry, or anxious. But it is possible to develop skills that, when practiced regularly in a non-crisis situation, can be summoned when needed. Here are a couple of possibilities from the yoga world:
All of these strategies (and many more) are intended to calm our Stress Response (“fight or flight”) and activate our Relaxation Response (“rest and digest”). So there are things you can DO that help achieve the state of relaxation. Perry wasn’t wrong; he just didn’t know that we can’t relax simply by telling our bodies to relax. We need to develop the practices that will help us get to that state. By the time you’re being arrested for murder, it’s probably too late to start that practice. I'm a Democrat. I'm an activist. I vote in every election.
I believe that our democracy is worth saving, but it requires us to show up and do the work. It's about staying strong and resilient so that we can show up. It's also about knowing ourselves well enough to contribute in ways that align with our passions, skills, and talents. There's room for everyone in this effort, but we need to build our skills of resilience to keep going and supporting each other. The slow, mindful style of yoga supports nervous system resilience and is based on the ever-growing body of evidence of the effectiveness of movement, breath, and meditation on our physiological and mental health. The events of the last several years in this country have brought increased levels of anxiety and stress to all of us. Here's an example I wrote about: "Don't tell me to calm down." I know how stressful it can be for people who are engaged in the tough work of ensuring that our democracy, our human rights, and our planet survive. I am aware of the harmful effects of stress and trauma on our bodies and minds, both short-term and long-term. But I’m also aware of the power of yoga tools, integrated into our days, to calm the chatter so that we can rest our minds and bodies. Through that rest, we can recharge and do the work that we are called to do. As my mentor Kristine Weber says: "Yoga helps you know who you are. When you know who you are, you know what to do." I've created a free slow, mindful yoga course here just for democracy activists! (And that includes anyone who cares about saving our democracy, preserving our civil rights, our reproductive rights, our right to health care, our planet.....) If you'd like access, email me for the link: [email protected] |
Until I considered yoga, I was always searching for the thing that would make me feel good in my body, mind, and soul. As I age, I want to embrace life and feel well every day.
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