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It is never too late to start over. Here, a story of professional metamorphosi, guided by yoga. Plus, tips for teach to older adults and a practice to keep us all healthy and agile as we age.
Work from Home: Jana Long in her residence studio in Baltimore, where she teaches yoga and gives wellness consultations.
Jana Long is a yoga therapist, wellness lecturer, reflection facilitator, mentor, and managing director of Power of One Yoga School of Ayurveda& Meditation Arts, and cofounder and executive director of the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance. She is the author and editor of Yoga as a Peace Practice, a curriculum and social movement that delivers contemplative rule to individuals and communities impacted by violence. She invigorates and empowers people 60 times and older to revitalize their bodies and spirits with yoga practices specially designed with aging forms in head.
In 2008, I was a 56 -year-old director of news technology services in the newsroom of the Washington Post and began to hear rumors that retirement buyouts would be offered to select employees. The whispering was that this round of buyouts would deep cut the workforce. I determined the writing on the wall and dedicated serious thought to my future.
By the end of the first three months of 2008, the talk of buyouts transformed from rumor to world. With 19 times on the number of jobs, I was eligible. The hour had come, and I was ready for my pink slip. I decided to turn this transition into an opportunity to realize some of my dreams, which included teaching yoga. I had already begun to build the bridge to this new life. In 2005, I has now completed a 200 -hour yoga teacher training and gave an Ayurvedic practitioner certification.
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Finding My Audience
In the midst of the stacks of retirement newspapers and literature, I obtained a flier that had come in the mail about a certification program at Duke Integrative Medicine, focused on teaching yoga to seniors. I was seeking my voice and identity as a yoga teach, and I followed my insight and registered for the program. The training at that time was a three-part series that began with lectures and workshops and culminated in the opportunity to design and implement a six-week practicum or anecdotal experiment project.
For the practicum, I chose to teach yoga to patients suffering essential tremor( ET ), a neurological disorder my mother developed in her late 70 s. ET is involuntary shaking or trembling of the hands, voice, and brain. ET differs from Parkinson’s in that it’s mostly understood while the body is moving. In Parkinson’s disease, tremors happen more at rest. At age 78, my mother was planning residents in the active senior community where she lived and helping to promote the project among her neighbors. Fourteen women, who ranged in age from 68 to 88, signed off for 75 -minute discussions once a few weeks for six weeks. Our theme was yoga for stability. The rules focused on spinal alignment in stand up and seated Tadasana( Mountain Pose ); the bandhas, especially Mula Bandha( Root Lock ) to strengthen the pelvic flooring; seam openers for the whole body; and a range of chair-assisted postures. I also introduced them to basic pranayama such as Dirgha and Ujjayi, steered yoga nidra( yogic sleep ), and tense-and-release practices for loosening.
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The impact of the yoga postures on my mother’s essential tremor was negligible, but I discovered that the steered meditation and relaxation techniques helped her feel more capable of controlling the tremors. She began to pause, take a breath, and come amply present to the moment before taking action. I continues to teach yoga to seniors in that community for a full year.
The practicum served as the foundation to offer more yoga grades in other senior communities. I had seen my niche. In 2009, I connected with the School of Continuing Education Senior Institute, which is part of the Community College of Baltimore County, and began to offer a class called Yoga Therapeutics for Seniors. Over the years, I have added more class, and my student listings are full. This time I celebrate my 10 -year anniversary teach yoga to seniors. I’m doing something I adoration as a second career, and I power my period and schedule. Even better, I share the practice of yoga with my peers to keep us vital as we grow older.
Yoga’s Healing Power
Research has shown that hatha yoga, or the physical practise of performing postures, assistances older people remain functional and active. Yoga offers a relatively safe route to foster move and loosening, promote seam health and flexibility, regenerate balance, improve strength and stamina, and provide a degree of pain management. Studies likewise show that yoga can help improve arthritis, diabetes, insomnia, depression, and other conditions that gave rise with aging. The contemplative aspects of meditation support stress management and cultivate peace of mind.
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My categories for seniors are rooted in my firsthand knowledge of what it feels like to be in an aging body. I know how it feels to be perfectly fine one day and the next day feel aches and pain without any clear clue of what altered in your torso. Older figures also thicken towards the middle. This is natural, and eating salad is not going to change it, so in my grades we are free to breathe deeply and loosen our bellies. As an older yoga teacher of older people, I acknowledge the connectedness yoga has brought into my life and the community that surrounds me. I am thankful to offer a room of comfort, security, and adoption where we are free from judging eyes and where we honor the inevitable changes that come with aging. Older people, myself included, reminisce about the mode we were, and although we will never return to the same youthful vigor we once had, yoga restores us so that we can live more vibrantly as we age. We leave our self-esteems at the door. Yoga for older people, like the string on the following address pages, is foremost about maintaining functionality and a general feel of well-being.
Learn More from Jana Long about Teaching and Practicing Yoga for Seniors: Sequence for MobilityJoint-Freeing Series VideoGuided MeditationHow to Teach Yoga to Senior Citizens
About the author
Jana Long is a attested yoga therapist and a Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider. She is also writer, a certified Master Gardener, and an ardent student of astrology. Learn more at powerofonecenter.com.
Read more: yogajournal.com
