The World’s Oldest Yoga Teacher

May16

Well, last week I talked about how to become a yoga instructor, but Tao Porchon-Lynch of a suburb just outside of New York City has something to teach all of us. This week, she was officially confirmed, by the Guinness Book of World Records, as the oldest yoga instructor in the world at the ripe age of ninety-three years old. You can watch the news story on Tao by clicking this link.  On top of her yoga career, Tao is also an accomplished competitive dancer, showing that she can shake her hips in moves that will have you shaking your head in disbelief.

When you watch the video, Tao can easily bend into any pose asked of her and she insists that her students are equally pushed to their comfortable limits. The classes she runs are small and intimate and her followers seem both loyal and thankful to have such a dedicated instructor to impart her knowledge.

Undoubtedly, Tao is nothing if not an inspiration and confirmation of all that yoga can do for our minds and our bodies. After a hip replacement that threatened to end her yoga career, she refused to hear from her doctor that her new hip came with physical limits and continues to teach yoga with impressive flexibility. Instead, she jokes about sending her doctor a photo of her impressive Lotus pose. Furthermore, Tao seems to possess a calm demeanor, patience and calmness that we’re all so desperately seeking, proving that the mental benefits of yoga go far beyond that initial exercise high in the studio.

Physically, Tao is living proof of the health benefits yoga provides. Her body rivals mine when I was eighteen (which is a far cry from where I am now!), and certainly, she looks like she could outrun me despite being nearly sixty-five years older. She claims that she will teach yoga until she cannot breath any longer, as her practice is a part of her.

Not all of us will reach the age of ninety-three, and certainly, we won’t all be able to keep up our practice until the end of our days. But Tao is a reminder that if we persist, calm our minds, dedicate ourselves to our practice and remain positive, anything is possible and all can be achieved. Occasionally, we all need this kind of reminder.

Kelly

Filed Under: In The News Tagged With: , ,

Yoga for Dogs?

Apr30

Duncan, doing what he does best...sleeping

Okay, for a moment, when I was writing the title of this post, I wondered if I had gone off the deep end, officially becoming the true definition of a Vancouver hippie. Alas, my doggie yoga research was really quite innocent. It all comes down to a mad love for English Bull Terriers. Allow me to explain.

This is a photo of my English Bull Terrier, Duncan, who was given to me as a gift (I do not advise such “gifts”, by the way) when friends worried I was lonely. He came into my life during a stressful time, made everything more light (despite a hefty 75 pounds of stocky poundage) and comical and brought so much love into each day. Sadly, on Remembrance Day last year, Duncan had a massive seizure and died when he was only three years old. I wrote about losing him with my Chatelaine blog, and you can read it here. To say the very least, I was devastated to lose my boy, my friend and my ultimate relaxation tool.

A year and a half has passed and so it is officially time for a new puppy, and since I didn’t quite get enough time with such an awesome breed, another Bull Terrier is officially on order and to be born in less than two months, to affectionately named Pot Roast. (The irony of the fact that I just cooked an actual pot roast last night is not lost on me, but I digress.) So, since I have no particular social life, I do a lot of “Bull Terrier” research, which is how I came across the story of Yoga Dogz, inspired by a Bull Terrier who began to imitate his owner and her yoga poses. Instantly, I ordered one of the funny calendars to brighten up my office.

But this got me to looking into actual yoga for dogs and I came across this article in Reader’s Digest. Yoga for our pets is popping up all over North America and why not? They already serve as such stress reducers for their owners that why shouldn’t they be part of our yoga practices? After all, our pets are family and all they really want is to be part of the pack. I mean, they already how “downward dog” mastered, right? And in a world where people push their dogs in strollers, carry them in purses and buy them $100 collars (guilty!), what’s wrong with a little relaxation in our lives?

But is doga (yes, I literally saw the term used in an article) a new-age fad, or do you think it has the same relaxation benefits for our pets as it does for us? Admittedly, I can’t picture any primal wolves strolling into a studio and bending into warrior pose, but at the same time, so many of the stretches we practice have been garnered from animals…cat, dog, lizard, frog, cobra. So is yoga for our pets really that far off the mark?

I don’t know if doggie yoga is in the future for Pot Roast and I, but I’d certainly be willing to give it a shot. At the very least, it can’t hurt.

Kelly

Filed Under: In The News, Styles & Poses Tagged With: , , ,

Could I Be a Yoga Warrior Instructor?

Apr20

A soldier once...a yoga instructor in the future?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Yoga Warriors, a practice designed for people suffering from PTSD, and Nicole Taylor, the only trained instructor in all of Canada. Nicole, as it turns out, has become a part of our family in a very short period of time, with my father now proving to be one of her most loyal “yoga warriors.” Daily, I see positive changes in my dad, and I know that Yoga Warriors is a big part of that.

Nicole and I have stayed in constant contact with one another and I have written several promotional articles for her, trying to promote what I see as being a vital service being provided to all of our military, veterans and first responders. Recently, Nicole mentioned that she felt I would be an excellent Yoga Warrior instructor, since as a veteran myself, I would be compassionate and understanding of each person’s situation. So much of the Yoga Warrior way relies on those character traits and without it, many of those who benefit from the sessions would never walk through the door of the studio. Do I have what it takes to be this special kind of person? My interest was certainly piqued.

It’s funny, since as I’ve been trying to carve my own path since releasing from the military, I’ve found myself feeling rather aimless. Sure, I have my writing, but in this economy, I constantly worry about paying the bills. And then the other part of me feels as though I no longer contribute anything to the world, and as a yoga warrior instructor, I could effect so much positive change on so many lives. When I worked with all the injured and ill soldiers during my last post in the Forces, I left each day feeling as though I had contributed something to the world. When you suffer with mental health injuries, the small act of someone lending an ear can make such a difference in your day. I was honoured that several members chose me to tell their stories to. Yoga Warriors serves as an outlet for the stress and anxiety associated with mental health injuries so prevalent in the work of soldiers and other first responders.

I never thought of myself as a yoga instructor, or even of it as a career possibility. But I’ve been signed up for instructor classes, and when I return home in June for a writer’s conference, I’ll also be training to become a certified Yoga Warriors instructor. It’s not the direction I saw my life taking, but like life, yoga is a journey. And somehow, it’s directed me here.

Kelly

Filed Under: Basics, In The News Tagged With:

Will Yoga Help You Catch Some Zzzs?

Apr11

My dog Duncan and I, having a snooze in the sun

I am quite possibly the worst bed partner anyone could ever hope to have. I am a painfully light sleeper, am woken by the tiniest of sounds and wake up a million times a night, my mind restless with thoughts (combined with a tiny bladder). It also takes me eons to finally slip into slumber and so I am willing to look into anything that will help me catch a few more precious moments of sleep. So I was excited to see a recent article in my Chatelaine magazine, which commented that women who did yoga twice per week were 30 per cent less likely to have a hard time sleeping. You can read the article here.

The benefits of yoga are endless, and I’ve discussed many of them in previous posts. And in lives that are increasingly hectic and technology oriented, it can be difficult to find a few moments to yourself to wind down, which is key to falling asleep easily and peacefully. And when it comes to getting proper rest, they also say that quiet time, about an hour before bed, can help you easily drift off, without having to count millions of sheep. What better way to wind down and relax than to perform a couple of gentle yoga poses, designed to ease your body and mind alike?

Chatelaine claims that the best pose is Lord of the Fishes, serving as a gentle stretch of the spine. Fitness magazine even provides a series of five moves that readers can use to promote sleep but it doesn’t stop there…the moves can be done while in bed!

So it seems the jury has reached a verdict: Yoga will promote better, longer lasting and deeper sleep, since both your body and your mind will be at peace. Just keep in mind that it will be the gentler poses, not power yoga, that will help you slip into slumber, since other methods can raise your heart rate and endorphins, making you stay away even longer. So practice gentle moves and better yet, follow up with some meditation so that your dreams will be sweet.

Kelly

Filed Under: Basics, In The News, Relaxation Tagged With: , , ,

Is Yoga Becoming Over-Commercialized?

Mar25

Image from YogaDaily.org

Or Merely Adjusting to Accommodate Western Culture?

New designer yoga apparel lines being introduced all the time. Yoga class fees—once negligible—steadily rising. Advertisements for yoga classes and clothing featuring the young and the beautiful, sporting the latest, most expensive apparel available. Whether you see these trends as negatives or positives seems to be largely a matter of individual perspective and opinion. Some people see the trend as proof that yoga has “sold out;” others view it as the inevitable result of the practice finding a large and growing following in new parts of the world.

When yoga first appeared on the scene in India (roughly between 4500 BCE and 3000 BCE), participation in the practice was largely limited to a few spiritual seekers devoted to finding enlightenment through austerities, meditation and breath control. The move toward the practice of yoga by huge swaths of the world’s populations is a distinctly modern (some might say postmodern) phenomenon.

According to religious scholars, the Samkhya-Yoga school was one of the earliest schools of the Hindu religion, predating even the Upanishads (the religious texts thought to have provided much of the foundation for Hinduism). Like all spiritual practices, religions and philosophies, yoga has changed and adapted each time it has found a wider body of practitioners and/or spread to another part of the world.

The philosophical question currently in play between yoga “purists” and “accommodationists” is whether its latest adaptation—to a largely European and North American public—is compromising the core of yogic beliefs and practices. Can a practice based on cooperation and spiritual enlightenment make a successful transition to cultures dominated by free market capitalism without losing its soul?

While many contemporary yoga practitioners consider yoga central to their spiritual practices, it’s entirely possible that large numbers of its new devotees approach it as just another form of exercise. I find nothing alarming about that. While the United States remains the most religious of the developed nations, both Canada and Europe have been becoming increasingly secular societies over the past half-century. Even in the uniquely pious U.S., the trend toward secularity is increasing; it should come as no surprise that practitioners of yoga in these societies should be more interested in yoga as a form of exercise than as a component of a religion or spiritual practice.

A practice that promotes flexibility of body, mind and spirit, yoga is itself highly flexible and adaptive. The number of people worldwide interested in the practice continues to grow and shows no sign of dropping off anytime soon. Debates among practitioners will no doubt continue and become even more interesting as interest in yoga increases throughout the world. Fortunately for us all, yoga practitioners tend to value openness and shun dogmatism. Given that generalization, it seems unlikely that these debates will turn acrimonious; they’re more likely to be collegial and mutually respectful exchanges.

Namaste,

William

 

Filed Under: In The News, Philosophy
« Older Posts