By Miranda Innes
Advancing age is a subject most people would like to ignore. After a certain point in life, it is a challenge to find much to relish about the prospect of getting older. Most people simply have no provision for it, in contrast with the yoga tradition which posits four equally valid life stages: youthful student; family rearing householder; the forest-dweller on a quest for self-knowledge (when family responsibility is no longer so pressing), and finally the respected wandering scholar seeking spiritual enlightenment. One stage is not better than another – the goal is to realize the potential of each stage to the fullest, in which yoga has a definite and facilitative role to play.
People usually become aware of their own mortality when their parents start to fail, when menopause concludes their childbearing function, or when retirement shuts the lid on a socially useful role and automatic status. This is when yoga comes into its own – on reaching your fifties, you are very likely all too aware of how fragile and how precious your body is. I am often struck by how frequently people suffer some debilitating or even life-threatening illness in their fifties, almost like a necessary rite of passage which clarifies their desire either to give up completely, or throw themselves back into life with renewed vigor and purpose.
By your fifties it is likely that mobility and flexibility will have become somewhat diminished, and you may have suffered backache at least, or possibly falls, sprains or broken limbs, and the consequent period of repair and disuse will have come as a useful reminder of the miraculous machine you live in, and how carefully and respectfully it deserves to be treated.
Sadly, in most of the civilized world, ‘old’ equals ‘useless’. In our youth-orientated culture, we have no way of greeting old age except by trying to compel it to go away with surgery, botox, drugs, or the time reversal cures touted by one charlatan or another.
What distinguishes a vibrant old age is attention, engagement, interest and flexibility – in other words the ‘being in the moment ‘ that is a cornerstone of yogic mental and spiritual practices, combined with the physical flexibility that is the gift of the asanas. Without due care, people tend to ossify, their spines become stiff, and the surrounding muscles rigidify as a defense mechanism, thereby exacerbating the original problem. Ironically, people react with panic to the thought of doing yoga then, saying that they are far too stiff, this being precisely the situation that yoga can alleviate.
People are born supple. When they die they are stiff.
Trees are born supple. When they die they are stiff.
Stiffness accompanies death.
Suppleness accompanies life. Tao
Old age begins when the backbone stiffens – yoga is the prescription for keeping a flexible spine, that in turn encourages free circulation of oxygen, bringing blood and prana to the joints and organs, nourishing, cleansing and rejuvenating every cell. The thing is to take it gently, practice regularly and banish any shred of the urge to compete. Small steps get there in the end, and it is never too late to begin yoga. It does not guarantee that you will live forever, but people who practice yoga stay young longer and nurture what they do have, physically and mentally, gaining comfort and serenity from the spiritual path that beckons beyond the asanas.
Yoga asanas, approached with respect, help strengthen bones which benefit from the development of the surrounding muscles, lubricate and liberate joints, loosen the spine, deepen the breath, oxygenate the blood, stimulate the glands and calm the mind. Wonderful news for older practitioners. According to Mary Stewart in her inspiring book ‘Yoga over 50’, ‘many of the complaints associated with ageing can be made less severe by keeping active and taking time to understand our body’s need for movement as well as rest…..Human beings have the most remarkable facility for change and regeneration throughout their lives.’
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be. The last of life for which the first was made. Robert Browning
As a mature adult, there is a world of energy, power and painless freedom to be gained from daily yoga, but there are a few cautions to observe before beginning. Medical problems must be respected. For example it is wise to avoid postures where the head is below the heart if you suffer from high blood pressure, heart problems, detached retina or glaucoma – though inversions are wonderfully rejuvenating for fortunate non-sufferers, counteracting the baleful effects of gravity. For people suffering simply from stiffness or insufficient strength to achieve a shoulderstand, stretching the legs up a wall fulfills the same function and is wonderfully relaxing. If high blood pressure is your problem, it is wise to avoid postures where your arms are above your head, and it is safest to avoid any of the bandhas. Long, slow breaths with an extended exhalation help this condition.
Anyone with vulnerable hamstrings should undertake forward bends and the dog pose with extreme caution. Women recovering from breast cancer and on a course of Arimidex may suffer from painful joints. According to the manufacturers of the drug brittle bones are another side effect, but they do recommend gentle yoga – bends and stretches performed from a seated position. Building and strengthening muscles and ligaments, particularly with weight bearing warrior poses, is helpful in the battle against osteoporosis.
The rule, as always, is to treat your body kindly, pay attention to it and never bully it, or allow pain to be part of the process.
A short relaxation, a gentle warm-up followed by breathing exercises to focus on this vital aspect of yoga helps, with reminders to relax into the postures on an exhalation. Use blocks, belts or straps to ease yourself gently into tricky poses. Women would do well to practice mula bandha whenever they remember during the day to stave off stress incontinence, and everyone will benefit from starting the day with a modified version of sun salutation using a chair if necessary, and a brisk session of stomach churning. There are variations of all the poses that are not too strenuous.
A good beginners’ program, moving slowly and thoughtfully from one position to the next could consist of corpse pose savasana; knee hugs, a hamstring stretch and a twist; then a moving breath meditation to gain awareness of the breath; once warmed up, start with a mountain pose for grounding and centering, followed by a forward bend standing or seated. Each pose to be held for six breaths to begin with, with rests in child’s pose if required in between. Move onto cat pose, a tree, and then one or two standing poses such as warrior or trikonasana. Consolidate with a dog pose, engage the back in sphinx or cobra, do whatever twist suits, and finish the asanas with a seated forward bend, and back into savasana and a few minutes of meditation.
From personal experience I am convinced that regular yoga helps the body to heal – after, in my case, breaking my right foot – not only physically, though it certainly restored flexibility and strength to my ankle very rapidly. For me it also helped enormously to counter the psychological devastation I felt on being immobilized and on crutches. Obviously I could not do any of the standing poses, but I went through a daily routine of seated bends, twists, and boat variations. Curiously, my heart yearned to do the tree balance and warrior poses. It was not just simple frustration; it was a passion to do those specific poses, addressing issues of strength and balance, qualities that were glaringly absent from my life at the time. Yoga definitely treats the psyche as well as the body, though I have still not regained enough confidence to do a dependable tree. I was interested to read in a medical journal that surgeons claim they know when they are working on the body of a yoga practitioner because all their internal organs are well supported, and exactly where they should be.
As a long-term back pain sufferer – along with half the known world and many older and sedentary people – I was always wary of my back muscles going into spasm as an automatic, though effectively unhelpful, protection mechanism. What helped me was one simple variant of the cat exercise detailed in Jim Johnson’s ‘Back pain: the Multifidus Solution’. Robin Rothenberg’s book and cd’s ‘The Essential Low Back Program’ had not been created when I was suffering. Her program is one of the very few treatments that has been clinically proven to help back pain. If I were still a sufferer I would follow her directives, and, all too well aware of how debilitating back pain can be, will pass them on to students with back issues.
Once my back achieved equilibrium yoga has prevented recurrence of spinal problems, and furthermore has cured all kinds of little aches and pains of which I was not really aware. I liken it to ironing out the little creases and internal glitsches that one just learns to live with as one ages. Only when I started doing yoga daily did I realize quite how many niggling little pains I was habitually putting up with, particularly since my work involves sitting at a computer for hours at a time – possibly the worst and most ageing thing one can do and a fertile seed-bed for back, neck and shoulder problems.
So, at an age when the future tends to look less than inviting, yoga performs a real miracle – it promises hope. Having positive bodily changes to observe and look forward to – since with dedication, physical improvement happens very quickly – runs wonderfully counter to the generally accepted notion of inevitable decline. Bucking the trend widens horizons and puts a definite spring in your step. Yoga also makes you much more aware of all the unconscious bad postural habits that cumulatively, over time, can cause permanent damage – kyphosis and lordosis, slouching in chairs, favoring one leg over the other which has a knock-on effect throughout the pelvis and spine. The insistence on symmetry, the careful conscious spinal awareness that comes with the Mountain Pose, the emphasis on core strength encouraged by navasana and leg lifts, all lead to hugely beneficial improvements in ordinary daily deportment.
Particularly as a mature person seeing evidence of human fragility, yoga has the heart-warming effect of making us appreciate the potential of our magnificently complex and self-healing body – when lovingly cared for – and awakening us to sincere gratitude for our capacities and ability to change, restore and ameliorate flexibility and strength.
But it must be emphasized continually that the way is gradual, and with caution. Sharp pain should never be part of the practice and is a signal to stop immediately doing whatever has caused it. The secret is to work slowly and gradually, breathing calmly into resistant joints, letting the body relax into postures, and making sure that only the appropriate muscles are working – it is astonishing how often a demanding pose is accompanied by knots in the neck and shoulders and a rigid facial grimace. If you feel a Gargoyle face coming on, the answer is to smile.
As we are told in a myriad different contexts, tension and overworked adrenals flood the body with noxious chemicals that are debilitating and harmful. Yoga, by making you think mindfully about tension and relaxation, helps to alert you to stress and nip it in the bud. It becomes automatic to react with a few minutes of deep, slow, conscious breathing: prana, the breath of life.
Yoga is a comprehensive beneficial cycle that counteracts tiredness and gives you an exponential increase in energy – especially noticeable among the more mature of us.
Stamina, vitality, concentration, mental acuity and calm: good qualities at any age and taken for granted by the young, but it is especially wonderful to take a positive turn when you were beginning to reconcile yourself to a dreary downhill drift. Which is a win/win result – you feel more positive, happier, life is better, and according to American psychologists you will enjoy life for an average 7 and a half years longer than those who can only see the gloomy side of things.
Miranda Innes is training to become a Yoga Teacher.