Old is Gold: Redefining Your Practice as You Age

I remember when I first noticed something was different. I complained to friends that lighting in establishments and rooms was poor. Why do people keep the lights so low? Why is the print so small in this book? My friends looked at me and smiled. It took a while for me to realize that the lightening hadn't changed, I had. I needed reading glasses.

I began to notice similar shifts in my yoga practice. Getting up and down off the floor was more challenging and less elegant. I wasn't as comfortable in certain stretches and I felt less stability in balance postures. I was less enthusiastic about taking public classes.

What Time Teaches Us

Here's the truth: Everything changes, whether we recognize it or not. Everything ages in the world. No matter how timeless I feel, I am living through time, and the chapters of that living are now mapped in my body. This means no matter how well we have taken care of ourselves, how well we moved in the past, we all face change in the body. Much of this change we have no control over. If we’re not able to redefine what this “aging” is all about, we can become more sedentary, less involved, and feel hopeless and uninspired.

The language we use around aging can be problematic, as can the expectations we place on ourselves when we begin to encounter a body that no longer responds the way it once did. We feel our limitations deeply, and they can feel burdensome. Our younger selves had limitations, too. But when the wide expanse of life still seems ahead of us, those limits don’t feel as heavy. When so much of life is in the rearview mirror, our perception changes.

Limitations aren’t the end of the road. They are information. An invitation to become more flexible and to make wiser choices. They give us an opportunity to be radical in our self-care, especially in our yoga practice.

Where Yoga Begins

At its root, Yoga is about going inward. This incredible Indian philosophy’s aim is to bring freedom, and a sense of inner harmony. In modern times, the emphasis has shifted toward physical postures—moving faster with more and moe challenge. Talk about limiting!

In its origins, yoga was never meant to be a workout or a fitness regime, even though it can certainly support physical health. There is no ancient text anywhere that tells us to do yoga for a better bootie or for flexibility and strength, although when flexibility and strength arise are beautiful byproducts of a deeper practice.

We want to keep moving, to keep stretching, and strengthening. But let’s do it in a way that serves who we are now, not who we used to be. This is yoga: being with life as it is. From a place of allowing, we can discern what is needed, make wise choices, and adapt when necessary—all in service of inner harmony and well-being.

Honoring Your Inner Teacher

Yoga practice, or sadhana, is time set aside for self-reflection and turning inward. We may enter through asana, but also through pranayama and meditation. Swami Kripalu, for whom Kripalu Center is named, spoke often about dance and other forms of self-expression as essential parts of a householder’s practice. When we bring our whole selves into the frame, inner harmony and freedom can take many forms.

Your body may be well lived. That is how wisdom is gained. You can draw on that wisdom to create a home practice that supports you as you are now. What you discover in that quiet time with yourself can then inform how you move through public classes, if and when you choose to attend.

Guidelines for Finding Your Practice

Know your why. Ask yourself why you are practicing yoga. This will help you shape what your commitment can look like. When you know the deep longing behind your practice, you are free to choose and create what serves your needs.
Slow down. When the movement is challenging remember that stability always comes first.
Adjust the posture. Use props and support yourself when you want to adjust an offered pose. Blankets are great for sensitive knees. You know your body, follow your instincts.
Use what is available to you. At home, walls and chairs are there to use. Pillows from your couch can replace bolsters. There is always help when you look for it.
Talk to your instructor. Don't be shy, ask what postures she might lead and plan ahead on how to adjust or decide if this is the led practice for you.

It is a privilege to grow older. Yoga, when practiced with discernment and compassion is a tool to help us embrace change and grow into our wisdom with grace and elegance. What a gift.