Remembering the late Michael Jackson

Since the death of Michael Jackson last Thursday, I am surprised at the feelings that realization has evoked in me.  I was never really a very devoted fan although his music had an impact on my life for over four decades. Remembering him as a child star, it’s difficult to fathom that the 50-year-old man is now gone, and I find myself singing his songs in my head as I go about my day, and yearning for the next bit of news about what his life was really like. His melodic voice reverberates into my very soul and I find myself feeling compassionate and sympathetic toward his family, his children, and the doctor who cared for him during his last moments. I don’t know if we will ever know the whole truth of the enigma that was known as Michael Jackson, but on and off the yoga mat it’s been hard for me to think of anything else.  It makes you think hard about your own mortality.  It also makes you think about what made the man tick as you hear story after story in the media, wondering if this fact or that fact was actually true. All I know is that ten years ago, before I started practicing yoga, the death of Michael Jackson probably wouldn’t have evoked such strong emotions in me, because I was a little more hardened back then.  Yoga has softened me, and the tears come a lot easily now when I hear news of this magnitude about someone I never knew, but who was a part of my life just the same.

Yoga is for older people, too

Yoga better be for older people, too, because I’m not going to stop practicing anytime soon.  Even though I haven’t even reached my 50th birthday yet, it’ll come soon enough and I don’t want to dig myself into a grave just because I’m hitting the big five-O.  It’s my belief that hitting midlife is not a time to think about the things we should have done, it’s a time to embrace life to the fullest, and begin a life with new meaning and vitality. 

I hope to be doing yoga well into my golden years, and I look forward to always living my life as a yogi and empowering others of advanced age to embrace yoga as a part of their lifestyle, too, so that they may live long and happy lives.  I may not be able to do everything that I can do now, but what I want to be is alert, flexible, and healthy, and be able to balance myself on my own two feet without falling.

According to a 2008 study —  ”Yoga in America” – by Yoga Journal, featured in an article called “Older Adults Increasingly Turn to Yoga for Health,” by John Hanc, (AARP Bulletin Today, June 9, 2009), “49 percent of those who practice say they are doing it to improve their overall health.  Most of these people tend to be younger: The study also found that among the estimated 15.8 million Americans who currently practice yoga, 40.6 percent are ages 18 to 34.  But more older adults are now taking their place on the mats alongside them.  According to the study, 18.4 percent of practitioners are now over 55.” 

It’s never too late for women in midlife to start a yoga practice. And you don’t have to step into — and you shouldn’t step right into — a power yoga class meant for 20-somethings.  There are many gentle yoga and restorative classes meant for older people just starting out.  “Whether you’re already active or sedentary, you need to be extremely careful in choosing the type of yoga you become involved in,” says Dixie Stanforth, a lecturer in exercise science at the University of Texas at Austin.  Most times, women find themselves suffering from chronic illnesses or stress-related conditions that prompt them to seek medical attention, and a means to make themselves feel better overall.   “One reason that a great number of older adults are showing up at yoga studios is because their doctors have recommended it,” says John Hanc. Most older people seek yoga as a means to maintain chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, depression, scoliosis, and heart disease, to name a few. The benefits of yoga are far reaching, and age doesn’t matter.

If you’re at midlife and you want to start yoga, may I recommend you get yourself a copy of Pat Shapiro’s Yoga for Women at Midlife and Beyond. It’s an easy read, and the illustrated poses are doable for women at any age.
 
Photo credit:  www.patshapiro.com

Soldiers in Iraq take yoga classes

This is a far cry from my previous posts and not really in keeping with my central theme, but I thought I’d write about this because I found the story interesting and wanted to share it with you.

In an article entitled “National Guardsman from Palmyra finds himself teaching yoga in Iraq,” LDNews, Lebanon, PA (June 10, 2009), 6-foot tall and 250-pound David Kocian doesn’t really look like your typical yoga teacher, but he quickly became one when interest grew among his soldiers to take yoga classes as a means to find peace and relieve stress amid the front lines.

“Once you cross that threshold into my room, it’s yoga world,” Kocian said. “Forget about your pain; forget about your problems; forget about your supervisor; forget what you just did and what you will be doing in the future.”  Kocian had 15 people in his class the first night, and 25 on the second night.  Kocian’s yoga class in a combat zone quickly became popular. People keep coming back for more and he gets lots of compliments.  He’s glad to be providing a worthwhile service to his service buddies. Yoga is one way to stay sane in an insane situation.

First Lt. Dave Sabulsky from Jamestown, NY went to one of Kocian’s classes and thought it would be initmidating at first. But, he didn’t find it to be very hard to learn and he “credits Kocian’s teaching for this.  He was relaxed. He knows what he’s doing and enjoys what he’s doing,” says Sabulsky.

Yoga can open new doors and shape new lives

I can’t begin to tell you the countless ways in which yoga has shaped my life.  When I began my practice over eight years ago, I didn’t have a clue about the journey I was undertaking. And I haven’t yet fully reached my destination, and I never really will. Yoga is a journey of the heart and the soul, and once on the path toward realization there is no turning back. Yoga has the capacity to change lives, to light the way and to empower opportunities that we never before thought possible.  Yoga can transform your dull, drab existence to one of light and love and joyous fruits, and there’s nothing you won’t be able to accomplish. The following is one such story that proves my point.

In an article entitled “Yoga Opened Doors She Had Long Ago Closed,” Los Angeles Times (June 5, 2009), writer turned yoga practionioner Colette LaBouff Atkinson spent three hours every day commuting to her writing job, and then spent countless more hours sitting at her desk at home, eating fast food or Mexican take-out.  When she developed excruciating back pain and experienced many sleepless nights, she finally woke up to a reality she hadn’t wanted to face. Her ex-husband had always encouraged her to try yoga, but the words never sunk in.  It was time to revisit that truth, if not to save her back but to save her sanity.

At 39, Colette finally broke down and went to a yoga class on New Year’s Eve.  Eventually, one class turned into four or five a week and she was hooked.  “But in yoga, as anyone and everyone who’s ever benefited from it will say, all kinds of things became possible.  I was there only to breathe; nothing to revise or make again,” says Colette.  “I may not have been calm.  I may not have been supple or limber.  I may not have been still or steady.  But the more I went, day after day, I was different.”

During times when Colette couldn’t sleep, she read a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald called “The Crack-Up,” in which she related to a life that wasn’t exactly going the way he wanted it to. He (Fitzgerald) writes of himself in the third person: “[T[his writer told about his realization that what he had before him was not the dish that he had ordered for his forties. In fact — since he and the dish were one, he described himself as a cracked plate, the kind that one wonders whether it is worth preserving.”

Restorative yoga benefits those with breast cancer

Restorative yoga is a gentle practice that reaps many benefits, especially for those suffering from breast cancer and other debilitating illnesses. It is not uncommon for people with health-related problems to embrace the power of restorative yoga to experience more peacefulness and less anxiety in the midst of worrisome thoughts and hospital treatments. Through the use of props such as bolsters, blankets, sandbags, straps and eye pillows, patients with chronic illness can be set up in supportive poses that will engender a more positive outlook on life, especially during traumatic life-changing experiences.

In a study of 44 women who participated in a 10-week restorative yoga program at Wake Forest Unversity School of Medicine, lead researcher Suzanne Danhauer, Ph.D. was quoted in an article entitled Yoga Benefits Women With Breast Cancer, (American Journal of Hematology and Oncology, May 25, 2009) as follows:  ”Evidence from systematic reviews of randomized trials is quite strong that mind-body therapies improve mood, quality of life, and treatment-related symptoms in people with cancer. Given the high levels of stress and distress that many women with breast cancer experience, the opportunity to experience feeling more peaceful and calm in the midst of breast cancer is a significant benefit.”

At the end of the program, the women were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning their quality of life.  Most experienced less depression, with increased feelings of peace and broader clarity and meaning in their lives. Women who had higher levels of negativity and lower emotional well-being received larger benefits from restorative yoga than others.

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