When I “discovered” yoga, in 1990 in Southern California, it was just coming into the awareness of the Western World. I remember someone asking me what I did and when told them I was a yoga teacher, they said, “How can you teach that, isn’t it something you eat?”
Seriously! Yoga? Yogurt? I guess they’re easy to mix up. Both were associated with the “flower child” element, certainly not mainstream where I’d moved to in Southern Colorado. That was a “wake up call” along with the fundamentalist church picketing my new yoga studio because they thought we were doing “devil dancing”!
We’ve come a long way since the early ‘90’s in the yoga world. Now its in ads and commercials, yoga studios are popping up like wild flowers and the number of yoga teachers and studios is constantly expanding. Yoga is fashionable! It shows up in movies, Athletes do it. Celebrities do it. School kids do it….and YOU can do it!
Why this passion for yoga? Sure, its great exercise, yoga builds healthy, strong bodies. Its relaxing too, a great antidote for our stress-filled world. And there’s so much, much more! The myriad benefits make yoga way more than exercise. Wanna lower your blood pressure? Try yogic breathing called “pranayama”. Wanna slow down your mind chatter? Try practicing meditation. Wanna relieve headaches? Try a few specific gentle yoga poses. How about help with osteoporosis? Yoga is a weight bearing practice so it helps to strengthen your bones. Stiff and achy in the morning? Yoga stretches maybe just what you need. The list goes on and on…
Yoga started 5000 years ago as a practice to control the body so the yogi could sit for long periods of meditation without being distracted by physical discomforts. But the benefits we can now reap from yoga are as important to us in our 21st century world as they were to the yogis of long ago. We all want to be healthier, more relaxed and more peaceful. Our world certainly needs a larger population of people like that.
Anyone can do yoga. A practice can range from tranquil, gentle stretches to a very strong, physically challenging sequence of poses. You can tailor your own practice to serve exactly what you need or want. Its about coming into conversation with yourself, with your body, with your heart and with your intuition. Your own body is your best guide.
My videos are meant to be a doorway, a first step for you on your yoga path. Some people are intimated by going to a class at first, so my videos are classes you can do in the privacy of your own home. As you progress, you can use my video classes to supplement your yoga studio classes. There’s really no substitute for the right yoga teacher for you. Every teacher is different, so shop around for a teacher who inspires you.
I would love to hear about your yoga journey, answer your questions and share in your experiences, so please feel free to participate in this blog.
Thank you for participating in Yoga for the Young at Heart, may your yoga path be filled with vitality and peace. Namaste’
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