Aging Gracefully, Part 1

I’ve had quite a few students tell me that for them, Yoga is their Fountain of Youth.  I think there are a lot of factors that go into aging with grace, and I can think of many aspects of Yoga practice that help in that respect.  A large segment of my clientele is retirement aged, so this subject is very much on their minds.  I have a number of posts I’d like to share over the next few weeks concerning aging, including how to approach Yoga with an older body, how to be healthy,  active, and fit with a body that’s just not what it used to be, and how keep both a young state of mind and a graceful, vital state of body.  I’d like to start with a larger overview of what everyone can do, at any age, to capture and retain a bit of youth.

This may seem a little odd coming from someone as young as me.  I’m in my mid-30’s and certainly still consider myself young and vital.  However, I am frequently mistaken for being about a decade, or more, younger than I actually am.  I do volunteer work at a wildlife center where my experience and knowledge has allowed me to train and supervise other volunteers.  On more than one occasion, new volunteers treated me somewhat dismissively because they mistakenly thought I was a very mature teenager, when in fact, I’m older than them by several years.  Sometimes people react dubiously when they discover I’ve been through college twice, traveled abroad, and had a book published.  They think I’m much too young to have done all that.  It would certainly be a difficult list of things for a 20 year old to accomplish, but well within the scope of someone over 30.  There is that old adage about not judging a book by its cover.   Some of my clients think I must know some sort of secret to age prevention.  That actually remains to be seen, but I’ll gladly share some of my thoughts on the subject.

I’ve written several posts on this, but lack of sleep definitely negatively impacts your health.  In addition, it ages you.  There are hormones and chemicals your body releases while you’re in deep sleep, and if you do not reach a delta brainwave state (which happens during deep sleep), you don’t get this benefit.  Without this little bio-chemical restoration from your body, you not only have less energy, but gain weight, look older, and may develop chronic pain.  So get plenty of rest. 

 

Along the same lines, stress has a wide range of negative effects on your health.  Stress ages you. If you haven’t incorporated a regular relaxation and self care routine into your life, it’s time to make some space for yourself. Looking and feeling younger is one of the many positive benefits of a weekly or even daily Yoga or Meditation practice.  Yoga is a lifestyle for me, but in addition to it, I have a self care routine that I commit to so that I can keep negative effects of stress minimized.  One thing that I personally do is go to the women’s day spa once a month every month as part of my dedication to self care.  You don’t need to spend a lot of money, but you do need to figure out successful methods to let go of the stress.

As a general rule your relaxation should not involve substance use, because that will be counterproductive.  I like a cup of coffee to calm me down when I feel stressed, but I do not include this in the category of self care or relaxation practices.  Things like caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, which many people use for recreational purposes, do not help you prevent aging.  In fact, I’m pretty sure they pack the years on.  I’m not going to preach to you and say don’t do those things, but I will say, the less you do them, the younger you will look and feel consistently. 

Brush your teeth.  I'm serious.  Especially if you're into one of the above vices (coffee, cigarettes, alcohol), because they stain your teeth.  We didn't choose the teeth we were born with.  Some people were blessed with lovely straight teeth, some people endured years of pain as teenagers to attain straight teeth, and some people were given by genetics a wild and crazy set of teeth.  Whatever you've got, you need to take care of them.  Dental problems can be life threatening.  Think about this, your mouth is really close to both your heart and your brain.  If you've got an infection in a tooth or your gums, where do you think is the first place it will circulate to in your body?  How about your brain, heart, and lymph nodes.  None of this is good.  There is a direct correlation between mental health and dental health.  If you take someone who has been experiencing extreme mental distress or illness and put them on a good dental plan, symptoms of their psychosis will abate. Plus dirty, stained teeth make you look older.  Keep them clean and care for what you have no matter what you were given.  You look nicer and you'll be healthier.  You might even be less crazy.  I'm pretty sure I'd be crazy if my mouth were in chronic pain.

Drink more water.  Do I really have to tell you the reasons?  You know your body is mostly water. If you want your organs to function properly, drink more water.  When your organs don’t function as they should toxins can build up in your body and lead to illness or exacerbate existing problems.

This is probably a good place for me to make a few comments on skin care, since those who want to keep a youthful appearance always have an obsession with skin care products.  This is actually also kind of laughable coming from me.  I have really nice, clean, clear skin most of the time.  I’m forever being complemented on my skin and hair by friends, family, clients, complete strangers in the super market, you name it.  People love to ask me “What do you do to have such beautiful skin?”  Nothing.  I do absolutely nothing. You probably should, too. 

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I don’t think it is that I have abnormally good skin compared to other people.  I think I just haven’t damaged my skin with the over use of products it wouldn’t need if you weren’t using so many products.  I wash it.  End of routine.  If the weather changes I might use a dab of moisturizer.  But rarely even that.  I don’t wear make-up that much either, and while I have no issue with the general practice of wearing make-up (for women or men), the reality is, if you like to cake that stuff on, your skin can’t breathe.  That is the problem.  When I was a professional actress, I used to purposely only wear make-up on stage.  Putting on the make-up was part of creating and becoming that character for me. No two characters of mine wore the same stage make-up.  I always came up with a different set of shading, colors, and order of application for every character I played.  As a result, when I am myself, and not a character, I just don’t wear any face paint.  If a little make-up helps you feel good and glamorous, you should wear it.  I believe in feeling good!  But if you’re piling it on, you might want to try a bit less to see if  your skin improves.  My skin would have fits of breaking out and being temperamental when I was in the middle of a running show and having to pile the make-up on and scrape it off every night.  Now that I don’t do stage work anymore, I have beautiful skin all the time.  I’m only sharing this because I think they two things are related.

Too much sun ages your skin.  But, don't get me wrong, sun is good for you.  It is good for everyone to spend a little time in the sun when they can.  However, it only takes about 10 - 15 minutes of sun exposure to get the full amount of vitamin D that you need.  I love being outdoors, so I totally understand that a really long list of fun, healthy, invigorating things, that you can and should do, will involve more than 15 minutes of sun exposure.  The important thing is that you protect your skin appropriately for your skin type.  Skin that has been burned or over exposed many times looks like tanned leather, because it basically is.  So, a little sun is good and even healthy, but a lot of sun on unprotected skin makes you look about 20 years older than you actually are.

Attitude is everything.  When you’re frowny, your face gets wrinkly.  Laugh more.  Laughter keeps you young.  I’m pretty sure heartfelt joyfulness is the true Fountain of Youth.  Follow your bliss.  Find your joy.  That is more important than anything else I've listed here.

 

Regardless of your actual age, or feelings about growing older, I hope that you will find a way to make peace with your physical body.  Being happy where you are, as you are, with who you are is the most important thing you have on your journey through this life.

Keep an eye out for my next discussion in this series.  I’m going to move on to some Yoga related things you can do to guard your youth and some things that older folks might want to practice in order to keep an aging body vital.

Five Minute Meditation

Anyone who has become part of the Yoga community or begun their personal journey toward inner peace has heard about the benefits of meditation.  It helps you focus, clears your mind, helps you sleep, helps you relax and release tension, improves your cognitive and intuitive abilities, reduces stress, lowers your blood pressure, and so much more.  So many of my students talk about wanting to incorporate more meditation into their lives.  So what's stopping them?  Why aren't we all meditative masters?

I think part of the issue is that we don't have a routine for it.  Many people feel like meditation needs to involve an hour (or maybe even more) of sitting and struggling to achieve the still and quiet mind and body.  I feel like that's similar to asking someone to jump off the high dive before they even know how to swim.  Meditation can start as a simply relaxation practice that you do once or twice a day.  You can do this when you wake up, when you go to sleep, or anytime that you have a few minutes for yourself. It can take as little as 5 minutes, and you will still get all the benefits you desire.

Here's my Five Minute Meditation.  Make sure you're in a place where you can be alone for just a few minutes.  I would not recommend doing this while standing or engaged in an activity like driving, because you will not be paying attention outside of your body.  Start by sitting up very straight and tall.  Place your feet flat on the floor.  Many people focus better when their eyes are closed, but you don't have to close them if you don't want to.  Bring your focus to your breathing. Breathe in through your nose.  Breathe out through your mouth.  As you breathe, think to yourself "breathe in, breathe out."  You can say this softly to yourself or just hold the thoughts in your mind.  Thinking "breathe in, breathe out" as you do the action helps connect your mind and body.  It also helps quiet the mind chatter.  You can also think "breathe in, breathe out.  relax, release" if you would rather.

As you continue quietly saying this little mantra and breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, imagine a bright, warm, white light pouring into your body from above the crown of your head.  It flows all the way down your body filling every space, organ, joint, and cell all the way down to the soles of your feet.  If you are not a visual person, try to imagine the feeling of warmth pouring over you and filling your being.  It doesn't have to be an image, and there is no need to struggle with it if the image isn't there.  Once you are filled with the warm, comforting, white light, let it drain completely way through the bottoms of your feet down into the earth, carrying away any tension or pain you feel, where it is release and resolved outside of your body.  Focus into the center of your chest, where the heart chakra is.  Focus on the feelings of joy, happiness, laughter and allow those feelings to spread, filling all of the empty space left behind when the white light drained away.  Then you simply say "Thank You," and end your meditation.

That's all there is to it.  You can take as little as 5 minutes or as long as an hour to do this if you choose.  But there is absolutely no excuse not to incorporate this very simple, short exercise into your daily practice.  You may be very surprised how much you gain from so little effort on your path toward inner peace.  Breathe in.  Breath out.  Relax.  Release.

Two All a Good Night

This piece is a follow up to my original article posted in June 2012, “To All a Good Night.”  I encounter so many fatigued and exhausted individuals trying to push themselves through a fitness routine at the end of a long day, who then injure themselves or do not experience success because they are just too tired.  So, I feel we should touch on this subject at least once more.

For the record, I am not a sleep doctor, but if you are having trouble sleeping, you need to visit one.  Poor sleep habits, or inability to fall asleep, can be signs of serious mental or physical issues that should be addressed.  Over time, poor sleep habits can CAUSE mental and physical issues, as well.  For one thing, feeling chronically tired or stressed can raise your blood pressure and potentially cause other cardiovascular problems.  Lack of sleep also shifts your internal chemistry slowing your metabolic rate and disrupting your digestion.  If you need the help of substances to fall asleep or stay awake during the day, then you should be seeking medical help.   Consider also that substance dependency (to even common place things like caffeine) can cause fatigue.   Many people end up in a never ending cycle of needing caffeine to get through the afternoon or become awake in the morning, but then cannot fall asleep at night. It sounds cliché, but cut the caffeine and try getting to bed on time. You’ll feel better.

Many times in my classes, students fall asleep during savasana (the relaxation and meditation portion at the end of Yoga class).  I know many of my fellow teachers (and students) become irritated about this.  The purpose of savasana is conscious relaxation.  This means that you should be aware of your thoughts, your state of physical relaxation, and you should remain aware even as your relaxed state deepens.  Conscious relaxation should not result in falling asleep unless you are over tired. However, I always emphasis “listen to your body” as a foundation Yoga principle.  If your body is telling you to sleep, listen.  For that reason, I always allow students who drift off during savasana to have that extra sleeping time.  It may not being deepening their road to conscious relaxation or helping them learn to meditate, but I feel if their need for sleep is that great, I would rather let them have it.  It is a miss-step in the practice of spiritual improvement to ignore the body’s basic needs in order to practice any spiritual teaching.

Of course, this does not mean that you should give up on the practice of conscious relaxation or purposeful, mindful meditation and just opt to sleep through savasana!  Conscious relaxation takes work.  It really does.  It takes practice to learn to meditate.  So don’t give up or use “I always fall asleep” as an excuse to take a side door out of learning the process.  Listen to your body, and nourish it with the sleep it needs.  When you are well rested, focus on your practice of mindful meditation. 

Make sure you’re getting your 8-10 hours per day. Your body, mind, and spirit really do need it.  Best of health, and pleasant dreams.

Yoga Update

Just a quick update for anyone in my area who is currently attending or would like to join me for my Tuesday night Yoga Flow class in Canyon Park (Bothell, WA). The schedule has been a little weird these past few months with competing events at the club, but we'll be more predictable through the end of the year.  Through the summer I've been doing a lot of standing series postures and Yoga techniques that energize.  Now that the rain has returned to Seattle, we're getting large classes of quiet, introspective folks.  I'm going to be focusing on balancing postures and floor work through January.  Come on out at 7pm (Pacific) for my class at Vision Quest Sport and Fitness for a taste of this relaxing format before whatever busy plans you have for Halloween.

Halloween is my personal, favorite holiday.  There will be no classes tomorrow, but I do plan to post a little blog about Halloween things near and dear to my heart.  Be safe, be well, join me tonight for Yoga if you're in my area.

When in Doubt

One of the foundations of Yoga is deep breathing.  I talked fairly extensively about the benefits of Yoga breathing and methods for improving breath control in my book, Kundalini Rising.  I'd like to devote some of my posts via Peace in the Body to examining breath work as well.

Let's start with the most basic controlled breath: an equal length in-breath followed by equal length out-breath.  The concept is quite simple, but people often struggle with it when they first begin.  I think the reason something so simple feels so hard is that we are not taught to breathe.  It's instinct; it's necessary; it's life.  We assume that we all do it well because we must.  Unfortunately, this simply isn't true.  We can get enough air to keep ourselves alive, but few people use their lung capacity well without training.  If you do not already do breath work as part of your daily health regimen, consider what a great untapped resource of rejuvenation and power you have right in your own chest.  This is something anyone can do, and anyone can improve.  Do you suffer from dizziness, anxiety, high blood pressure, insomnia, asthma, stress, fits of rage, depression, confusion, headaches or migraines, tension, poor memory, or chronic fatigue?  All of these things can be improved by conscious, active deep breathing and breath control. Do you want to improve your athletic stamina?  You need breath control for that, too.  Breath work not only strengthens your lungs, but your cardiovascular system as well.  Breath work also is a necessary foundation for meditation and integral to any relaxation technique.

This first exercise, the one I'm focusing on in this post, is The Equal Length Breath.  It is a great starting place for anyone who struggles with deep breathing or has had trouble with any of the above symptoms.  The best times to use this technique are right before bed, first thing in the morning, when you are in the grip of one of the issues I've listed above, before meditation or at the beginning or end of any physical exertion.  This exercise opens the lungs and increases the amount of oxygen circulating in your blood stream.  Over time it improves your lung capacity and mental efficiency.  It also gives your body the signal to continue using the opened lungs more fully after the exercise has ended, so the effect is longer lasting than just the time you spend doing the exercise.  It triggers your sympathetic nervous system  to slow down, shifting you out of a reactive state, into one that is more peaceful and aware.

To do The Equal Length Breath all you need to do is breathe in for a 5 count, and back out for a 5 count.  Do not try to hold your breath at all.  Let it flow in for 5 seconds and flow right back out for 5 seconds.  Do that again 10 or 15 times and then let the breath flow without counting.  Five is the lowest count you should ever do, and I expect most people whose lungs are not compromised can start higher. An 8 or 10 count is much more effective, but if you've never done any deep breathing or breath work or if you have lung disease, 5 is a good starting place.  After you've tried this a few times, increase your count to 6.  Then try 8.  Once you're able to do 10 don't ever go back to 5 or 8.  Always count very slowly.  There is a tendency to want to count faster and faster, especially if you are a goal oriented person.  The goal is not to finish the exercise!  Pushing for the end will actually cause you to miss the purpose of doing this.  The goal is to complete the best, slowest, most fully equivalent breaths that you can. If you think the counting you are doing has started to speed up, start over and count slower.  Always maintain a perfectly even count.  The basic 10 count is a great platform for breath work even if you haven't done it in a while. I always asks my classes to try their breath on a 10 count, and I don't feel like that is not too much to ask of Yoga practitioners.  You can increase it from there as you feel ready.  I generally count to around 30 or 40 myself, but have gotten up to 90 or 100 when I'm meditating.  For the record, I was born with fairly severe asthma, and I struggled with it all through my childhood, teens, and into my early 20's.  Growing up, I had the weakest lungs of anyone I knew.  If I can learn to do this, so can you!   

When you do this breathing exercise, I recommend breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.  This will help you maintain control, focus, and flow of the breath.  It should feel like your breath is a circle.  Breathing in takes you half way around the circle.  Breathing out completes it. One cycle of the breath is a full circle: all the way in and all the way out.  I always like to suggest that as you breathe in, you focus on the feeling of joy, filling yourself with good health and happiness, and as you breathe out, feel any tension, pain, or anxiety flowing out and evaporating into thin air.  Breathe in only what feels good.  If anything in your mind or body doesn't feel joyful, breathe it out and just fill your thoughts with the counting of the breath.  The numbers are neutral.  Use them to clear the cluttered thoughts out of your mind.

I always tell my classes, "The breath is more important than the postures.  When in doubt, just breathe."  That is what I am telling you, too.  Whatever you face today, pain or joy, whatever the obstacle, big or small, the first and best thing you can do is just breathe.