Why I Believe It Is a Practice for Life
When people think about yoga, they often think about stretching. They imagine somebody incredibly flexible with their leg somewhere behind their head and immediately say to me, “Oh, I couldn’t do yoga — I’m not flexible enough.”
But yoga is so much more than flexibility.
In fact, the older I get and the longer I teach, the more I understand just how powerful a complete yoga practice can be. Yes, yoga can help us maintain flexibility and mobility, but it can also help us develop strength, balance, coordination and body awareness. Then there is the breath, the mind, relaxation, meditation and our nervous system. And beyond all of that is something harder to measure but equally important to me — our relationship with ourselves and, for those who want it, the spiritual side of the practice.
That’s why I describe yoga as holistic.
We’re not just exercising one part of the body. We’re working with the whole person.
When I’m teaching a class, I might be helping someone strengthen their legs in one posture, work on their balance in another and gently mobilise their spine in the next. At the same time, I’m asking them to notice their breathing, become aware of unnecessary tension and bring their attention back into their body.
That’s very different from simply stretching.
Strength is an incredibly important part of yoga, particularly as we get older. I want to maintain strong legs, a strong back, good balance and the ability to get myself up and down from the floor. Yoga uses our own body weight in so many different ways, and I love combining that with resistance training because I want both strength and mobility as I age.
I sometimes ask people to think beyond the body they have today.
What do you want your body to be capable of when you’re 70?
What about 80?
Or 90?
None of us knows exactly how long we’ll live or what our health will be like, but people are living into older age and I think we should prepare our bodies for that possibility. I don’t simply want to live longer. I want to do everything I reasonably can to remain strong, mobile, balanced and independent for as much of that life as possible.
Being able to get down onto the floor and get back up again matters. Being able to turn your head comfortably matters. Balance matters. Leg strength matters. Mobility matters.
These things may not feel particularly exciting when we’re younger, but they become incredibly valuable as we age.
And then there’s something I think is equally important: our nervous system.
We live in a world that constantly asks for our attention. Phones, emails, work, family, noise, news, appointments, responsibilities and endless information. We can become so accustomed to rushing that we barely notice how activated we are.
Yoga gives us an opportunity to change gear.
When we move consciously, notice our breathing and bring our attention to what we’re actually experiencing in the present moment, we’re practising something very different from rushing through another task.
I teach people how to slow down.
I teach people to notice their breath.
I teach them to recognise when they’re holding unnecessary tension.
And I teach them that relaxation isn’t something we should only allow ourselves once we’ve completely exhausted ourselves.
Our autonomic nervous system is involved in regulating many of the body’s automatic processes. We need activation and energy, but we also need the ability to rest and recover. Yoga practices that include gentle movement, breathing, meditation and relaxation can become useful tools for helping us move from constant doing towards a calmer state.
This doesn’t mean yoga should make us permanently calm. That’s not the aim.
Life will still happen.
We’ll still get stressed, angry, excited, frightened and overwhelmed sometimes. Yoga doesn’t remove those experiences. What it can give us is a place to practise noticing what’s happening without immediately being swept away by it.
Sometimes the most important part of my class isn’t the most impressive posture.
It’s the moment somebody lies down at the end.
The body becomes still. The breathing settles. The room becomes quiet. For perhaps the first time that day, there’s nowhere else they need to be and nothing they need to achieve.
I think we underestimate how important that is.
And then there is the spiritual side of yoga. This will mean different things to different people, and I never believe somebody has to adopt a particular belief system to practise yoga. For me, it’s about connection — connection with our body, our breath, ourselves and something beyond the constant chatter of everyday life.
Yoga can simply be physical if that’s what somebody needs from it.
But it can also become something much deeper.
That’s why, after years of teaching, I still love it.
Yoga meets us wherever we are.
When we’re young, it can help us build strength and body awareness. In midlife, it can help us maintain mobility, balance and resilience while giving us space away from increasingly busy lives. As we grow older, the practice can adapt again — perhaps becoming gentler, slower and more focused on maintaining movement, balance, breathing and independence.
You don’t have to perform the same poses at 80 that you performed at 30.
That’s not the point.
The practice changes because we change.
For me, yoga isn’t about being able to touch your toes.
It’s about creating a relationship with your body that you can carry through your whole life.
It’s strength and softness.
Movement and stillness.
Effort and relaxation.
Body, breath, mind and, if you choose, spirit.
That’s why I believe yoga is one of the most beautiful things we can continue practising as we grow older.
Not because we’re trying to stop ageing.
But because we want to keep living fully inside our bodies for as long as we possibly can.
Selena
Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher & Wellbeing Coach
In Flow Wellbeing Studio, Cheltenham
