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Books for Senior Citizens
Author of New Yoga Book for Boomers and Seniors
Explains What Yoga is About
Author says her new yoga book is for boomers and
seniors who are still looking to stay healthy, strong, and agile, but
also want to slow the aging process
By Beryl Bender Birch, author, Boomer Yoga
 April 7, 2009 - In l995 my book Power Yoga
was published. It turned a whole bunch of people (over 200,000) on to a
powerful, sweaty, cleansing yoga practice that developed strength,
focus, flexibility and a good sense of balance and healthy well being.
It was, and still is, a great practice for people in their 20’s and 30’s
and 40’s.
Now, 14 years later, I have just completed my third
book, Boomer Yoga. This book is written for adults – boomers and
seniors who have already lived a good part of life and are still looking
to stay healthy, strong, and agile, but also want to slow the aging
process, reduce general inflammation, minimize pain, and maximize
contentment and peace of mind.
 Why Do You Want To Do This?
If you are already practicing yoga, I’d like to ask
you a question. I almost always start out my workshops and teacher
training courses around the country asking the same question – “Why are
you doing this?”
It gets people thinking. “Why am I doing this
anyway?” Yoga is a discipline, it’s a lot of work. To be worthwhile it
needs to be practiced for a long time without a break. Why in the world
would we want to take it on?
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“Beryl is my kind of woman, a pragmatic
practitioner of yoga…someone who takes you on a spiritual and physical
journey with the proper mix of realism, compassion, joy and laughter.
"She is the perfect guide to help us all appreciate the rewards of yoga
and everything our ‘more mature’ bodies and souls can continue to do for
years to come.” –
Katie Couric, anchor of CBS Evening News |
And if you aren’t doing yoga, well, I will ask you
the same question – why are you reading this? Why are you curious about
yoga?
Here is what people who have practiced for a bit
have to say:
“I don’t know really – I came initially to just
have a stretch. Now the practice has taken me into dimensions I never
imagined when I started.”
“It feels good.”
“It quiets my mind”
“It helped me to get rid of my back pain”
“It gets my attention in the present moment where I
don’t have the opportunity to fret about the future or bemoan mistakes
of the past.”
“I find the lessons on the mat, in class, carry
over into the world – like getting comfortable with discomfort”
“It helped me to get through menopause pretty
easily”
“It takes me deeper into my Self”
“It has given me great contentment and peace of
mind.”
How does all this happen, you might wonder? Well,
if you are already practicing yoga, you already know the answer. If you
aren’t practicing, your ears are probably perked up. “Wow,” you might be
thinking, “I could use a little more peace of mind or a little help with
menopause.”
 Getting Your Attention in Present Time
What is the point of yoga? Yoga has one objective
and that is to teach us to pay attention.
It isn’t about gymnastic ability. Oh, we might get
all caught up in the physical aspect of yoga (the practice of the
asanas, or postures), when we first start out – particularly if we are
studying a strong (called rajasic, or “active” in Sanskrit) form of
asana as I detailed in Power Yoga and continue (with
modifications) in Boomer Yoga.
But sooner or later we learn that the asana portion
of yoga is only one limb of an eight limbed methodology and the
equivalent of kindergarten in the world of yoga.
Asana is intended as a gateway to take us deeper
into the more subtle dimensions of our Self. And this happens through
the yogic techniques of mindfulness and attentiveness training – it’s
all about getting our attention in present time and keeping it there.
The Therapeutic Effects
Whether helping us to relax or to heal, yoga is
intended to be beneficial. Yoga is a methodology that leads to greater
self awareness and equipoise.
All aspects of our practice should serve us
therapeutically. A particular posture can act as therapy for the back or
an injured shoulder, for example.
A particular breathing technique can lead to better
sleep or balanced hormones.
I think there are unlimited ways in which our yoga
practice can be therapeutic and curative and these can be different for
everyone – depending on why a person started yoga in the first place and
what it is they are looking to fix.
Whether it is to reduce the severity of the
symptoms of menopause or reduce the pain of osteoarthritis, it is more
than likely that a yoga practice of some kind, whether asana, breath
work, or meditation, can be helpful. How does this happen?
Through the sweating, the movement, the breathing,
and the process of mindfulness, whichever particular practice it is,
there is a curative and balancing effect on the nervous system, the
immune system, or on circulation, respiration, etc,
Health and Happiness
Some benefits are strictly physical, such as the
restructuring of biomechanical or energetic alignment or the restorative
effects of tapas (detoxification). Some are more mental, like relieving
stress by training the mind to focus on the present through conscious
breathing techniques, and thus limiting anxiety and the debilitating
effects of stress related disease.
Still others are less tangible, where the effects
simply make themselves apparent through general feelings of
transformation – resulting in a deeper spiritual connection to Self, or
greater peace of mind.
But whether we stretch out our hamstrings or slow
down our mind, find flexibility or find contentment, I think it is
important that we know that all our work in yoga can be beneficial for
us.
If it isn’t helping us, it isn’t yoga.
 About Beryl Bender Birch
A spiritual teacher, yoga therapist and author of
Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga, Birch has been an avid
student of yoga and the study of the consciousness since 1971. With
degrees in philosophy and comparative religion, Beryl has traveled
extensively in India, has been teaching the classical system of ashtanga
yoga for thirty-three years, and training yoga teachers as “spiritual
revolutionaries” since 1980. She was named by Yoga Journal as one
of only seven American women in their “innovators Shaping Yoga Today”
issue. She is the director-founder of The Hard & Soft Yoga Institute. In
2008, she founded the nonprofit Give Back Yoga Foundation.
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