Yoga for Everyone

Our yoga group on a typical Thursday night.

When most people think of yoga, they often imagine slender, hyper flexible women doing beautiful poses. OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration! But the idea out there for many is that yoga is for the fit and flexible and primarily young.

This stereotype is worth shattering. It’s worth shattering because yoga offers those of us who are middle-aged and above a number of incredible benefits. Here are some to consider:

Yoga works the whole body.

It increases functional strength, flexibility, and range of motion. These elements are important at every age but particularly critical as we get older. Combining these three factors makes yoga a time efficient practice, one that offers the best of all worlds in terms of fitness, especially when there’s little time left in an already packed schedule.

Yoga promotes less reactivity to life’s stresses.

With it’s emphasis on linking movement and breath, yoga encourages a meditative state where little by little the practitioner experiences moments where stories about the past and future are dropped because there’s attention to the sensations in the body. The body becomes a focal point used to center the attention. The awkwardness of a stretch is often the entry point to this experience. Over time, the awkwardness gives way to a pleasurable sensation of opening and release that deepens the desire to notice and practice. What is often experienced on the mat is over time translated off the mat and the yoga practitioner finds himself in a space where there is more calm and peace of mind.

Yoga affects the nervous system.

One hour of yoga has been shown to reduce cortisol levels. This is important as we know that inflammation is at the root of many of our modern illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.  We know that stress is up there with smoking and poor diet as factors leading toward ill health. Yoga addresses this issue in ways that traditional exercise does not.

Yoga is not just for women.

This sounds like an obvious thing, but for many men, yoga is something women do because they are flexible. For a man who could barely touch his toes six years ago, I can attest that this is not true. Practice demands patience, letting go of preconceived ideas about how a pose should look like, and humility in accepting limitations. Letting go of a competitive mindset when it comes to practice is probably one of the biggest barriers for men to practice, but in our little community, this is something that we do well. Self-acceptance and respect for the body are central to making each practice one that is particular to the practitioner. The benefits of yoga for men and women are powerful.

Know that there’s a spot waiting for you at one of our yoga sessions this week! Don’t hesitate to join us. It’s always a good time to start something positive.

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