Yoga Articles

What Does Middle Age Look Like?

By Susan Winter Ward

Every 7.5 seconds someone in the US is turning 50...Are you? How will our generation reshape the definition of "middle age"?

According to the demographers, economists, and sociologists, the "Baby Boom" generation has a major impact on all aspects of our society as we move through our ages and stages. In the next 10 years, an estimated 76 million of us will turn 50! Talk about major impacts! How will the "Boomers" redefine aging?

Getting older doesn't have to mean getting old. We certainly don't have to accept the traditional concept that aging means degeneration, or declining strength, health, and quality of life. As we mature we can redefine our identities, making the most of new freedoms. Liberated from child rearing and the building of financial futures, we're free to create new careers and new lifestyles. We have the choice, if we so desire, to maintain and create healthy, strong and vital bodies and minds. Individually and for our entire generation, we can change the concept of aging.

The "health club" was the result of the Baby Boomers in their 30's and 40's valuing their health. Fitness reigned as health buffs aerobicized and pumped iron to the tune of a heavy beat. Now, as the "Boomers" enter their 50's, the opportunity to create health and fitness from a place of calm and centeredness is quickly gaining in popularity. Boomers, seniors, business people; people from all walks of life are rising to the rhythm of a gentler beat, that of heart and breath through "yoga."

"Yoga" may create images in your mind of an emaciated Indian renunciate sitting in pretzel position, naked on a bed of nails. But, would you believe that those who practice hatha yoga range from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Raquel Welch, from Sting to the Miami Dolphins?

While there are many branches on the yoga tree, the current popular adaptation of yoga to our modern lifestyle has taken the form of "hatha yoga", which tends to focus on "asanas" or poses to build fitness, control, vitality, and balance. The word "hatha" comes from the Sanskrit "ha" meaning "sun" and "tha" meaning "moon", expressing the balancing of opposing forces. "Yoga" means "union" or "reintegration." Together, "hatha yoga" expresses the union or balancing of opposite forces. Yoga is a process, not only of experiencing the unfoldment of physical benefits, but of discovering centeredness and deep relaxation in our increasingly complex and pressurized culture; of discovering the balance within.

For 5000 years, yoga has been a path to health and living consciously in these bodies we inhabit. We're just discovering what has been known in India for thousands of years, yoga is a personal "fountain of youth" because of its rejuvenating effects on the body and and its calming influence on the mind. Its a pathway to heightened awareness of ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually. Its adaptable to any age or physical condition, and the benefits are undeniable.

Yoga works! Its more effective than pumping iron for building strength and flexibility; more effective than aerobics for building stamina and breath control, and more relaxing than jogging. It has been clinically shown to lower blood pressure, increase circulation, build muscle tissue, increase flexibility, relieve stress and stress-related symptoms, and strengthen the respiratory system. Yoga offers relief from symptoms of menopause, can counteract osteoporosis, cleanse internal organs, energize the nervous system, balance out the digestive system and relieve headaches and lower back pain. As a spiritual practice, yoga can be a pathway to greater enlightenment. It benefits the body, mind and soul, and the choice to enjoy those benefits is yours.

How we approach our yoga practice is a microcosm of how we approach our lives. We can watch where our resistance is, when we become competitive, fearful, and lazy. We can notice how we respond to the physical, psychological and emotional challenges of the unfolding process of a yoga practice. When we are whole and at peace is when our true potential can be expressed. What we experience on the outside is a direct reflection of what we choose to project from the inside. Its from this place of living life to the fullest, of respecting and nurturing ourselves, that we become healthy, relaxed, dynamic and inner-directed.

Yoga is an adventure into ourselves and into our health. Health and fitness is a choice, an attitude, a state of mind. What do you want 50 to look like? Its all up to you. Through yoga, we have the opportunity to redefine ourselves at 50, or at any age.

Thanks to www.yogaheart.com for permission to reprint this article.