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| Mt. Tamalpais Above the Fog—Sometimes We Can Get There by Brad Gibson |
It came to us while the three of us were in the kitchen, preparing a meal together and talking about how these days, as we age, our yoga practices are designed to address our changing needs and concerns: wasn’t it about time the three of us finally collaborated on a project? “Yoga for healthy aging,” Nina said. “And a blog would be a perfect way to start.” Baxter was concerned that we might not have enough material for an ongoing project, but Brad said, “No way. We’ll never run out of topics!”
You see, between the three of us, we have a wealth of special information and techniques we’d love to share with you.
Baxter Bell is an MD, a medical acupuncturist, and a long-time yoga teacher. Besides teaching regular asana classes, he specializes in yoga for back care and anatomy for yogis. He’ll be recommending yoga poses and other practices for you that address various physical aspects of healthy aging, including strength, balance, flexibility, circulation and agility.
Brad Gibson is a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where aging and age-related diseases are the sole focus of the institute. As more is discovered about the aging process, our understanding about how to support healthy aging with yoga will increase. Brad will help you keep in touch with the latest scientific discoveries, and we’ll explain their connection to specific yoga practices.
Nina Zolotow is a yoga writer as well as a certified yoga teacher and a long-time yoga practitioner, and her special area of expertise is yoga for emotional wellbeing (including yoga for stress, insomnia, depression, and anxiety). She’ll be recommending yoga practices for cultivating equanimity because as we age, reducing stress is more important than ever, both for our physical health and our peace of mind.
This week each of us will take a turn letting you know a little more about ourselves and why we decided to take on this project. After that, we hope to take requests! Below is a list of the general topics we are planning to take on. But please leave a comment if any you have any special questions or concerns you like us to address.
- strength
- balance
- flexibility
- agility
- circulation
- stress
- cognitive functioning
- equanimity
- specific age-related diseases (such as arthritis, high blood pressure, Parkinson’s, diabetes, etc.)
- what is known (and what is not known) about the aging process
Tune in tomorrow to hear from Baxter.
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Hi Nina, Brad, and Baxter,
This looks wonderful! Thank you for letting me know about the site. I look forward to the discussions.
Love,
Carol Williams
Great idea,now if I can remember how I got here….
As a senior citizen, I am no longer comfortable attending yoga workshops, where everyone is at least 20 years younger. I look forward to future discussions on this site, as a viable alternative.
Welcome Carol, Sharon, and Nan! I hope you'll chime in later on with questions and specific issues you'd like us to address.
I just had lunch yesterday with Ken, Josh, and Alex. I asked if anyone had heard from you and Ken mentioned your new blog. It sounds great! I'm not a yoga practitioner (yet), but I agree with you, Brad – as adults we have a very formalized and limited relationship with our bodies. That's probably part of why we become so inflexible, tired, and out of shape.
This looks cool, and it's fun to be in touch with you guys again, too. :o)
Elizabeth! What a pleasant surprise to see your name. Too bad I couldn't come to the lunch.
Yes, one of the great aspects of yoga is the enormous range of movements that it allows. It can be playful, too, if approached in the right spirit.
–Nina
Back to the future – Jul 12 2014. I have recently discovered you ~ I am so in love with this blog! Thank you for your generosity in sharing your time and knowledge with us.
Namaste friends x