Aging is a number, not a condition

What myths about aging do you believe??

Do you believe you are powerless over the changes?

Do you believe you must slow down and accept not being able to do the things you once enjoyed??

Aging is a chronological change BUT and this is a BIG BUT, aging is NOT A CONDITION. You can enjoy life without pains, loss of strength, or loss of flexibility.

Body Mechanics

Aging can mean we need to re-evaluate our body mechanics. Each one of us has adopted bad habits such as slouching over a computer or keeping our shoulders rolled forward or sitting in one position for too long.

If you have ever watched a child, they are in constant motion. If they lean right, they lean left, if they fold forward, they lean backwards. Children unconsciously listen to their bodies and self-adjust to their body’s needs.

As adults, we have retrained ourselves to ignore that and thus developed body mechanics not helpful to living our best lives.

Right now, notice your shoulders, are they up by your ears?? Notice your spine is it curved over or long and lifted??

Spines

Our diaphragm is located just below the rib cage and when we slouch, we are closing off the ability for our bodies to take a deep breath, thus having us breathe from about nipples up (get over that word, we use it a lot in yoga) rather than using the whole lung capacity.

Breathing is designed to encompass the entire lung field, so in order to do that we must lift the spine up, or as I say in yoga—nipples up. Bet you just lifted your spine and took a good breath.

One of the reasons people love a yoga class, is you are being directed on how to breathe for optimal health. Breathing is where optimal health begins and aging becomes a number, not a condition.

In a yoga class the first position is to breathe, and thus anybody, at any age, in any condition will feel better and more energetic with good breath flowing through their lungs.

Breath

Follow some good breath with simple stretches, reaching up, over, and back. Allowing a breath or two before moving on to the next pose and you are doing yoga.

A note to mention here, you don’t start yoga when you become flexible, you use yoga to get flexibility. Yoga is really a class that uses many stretches a physical therapist would use to heal you once you are injured. Yoga does not have to look like unnatural poses but poses as our bodies were meant to move. Once you get going on that the next step is to retain your balance.

Balance

Balance starts with your feet and builds upwards. Lift your toes and find the four corners of your feet rolling around on your feet to feel what your foundation feels like.

Practice - lift one foot, even just an inch, off the ground and examine if you are leaning over to one side, if your foot rolls outward, or if your ankle is too weak to hold you.

This becomes information to build upon. Developing healthy body mechanics takes thought and intention to relearn what our bodies once did naturally without thought.

Connecting it all together

Yoga is stretching.

Balance is about how our bodies move on one or two legs with ease.

Breath is our natural pose for optimal health of our internal bodily organs.

Aging is chronological but not a condition of weakening or failing. If you need a refresher on how your body is meant to function, call me to schedule a session, and let’s make 2022 the year for you.

~ Yoga Mom Kimberly