It takes being quiet, inner listening and opening to movement to find out what we are feeling. One of the goals of teaching a yoga practice is to bring sensitivity and awareness to oneself through movement.

Poppies always remind me of this. Their petals while dramatic and vibrant are paper thin and fragile. This duality allows them the freedom of movement while remaining strongly rooted. Witnessing a yoga room of seniors moving with breath is akin to the petal dance of a field of poppies blowing in the wind.

Each individual flower moves to its own rhythm, as does each client.  In your senior yoga class, invite your clients to become aware of their own grace and fluidity as they create movement with the body. Encourage them to slowly move the head and neck, letting movement just happen naturally. Perhaps, slowly moving the head side to side, forward and back, imaging that they are moving to the beauty of their own wind.

Have them explore the movement and just be with whatever the body wants. Have them sense and feel the movement of each muscle, joint and ligament. Ask them to sense the wisdom of the body lubricating itself merely by the creation of movement. Invite them to slowly add the shoulders and upper body into the movement and feel and observe each part of the body.

Giving your senior yoga clients permission to practice honoring whatever is arising in mind and body as they move gracefully like the poppy in the wind, can reawaken the body’s desire to open wide and shine for all.

Proprioception is having an acute awareness or sense of where the body and limbs are in space. In a yoga class, as we move our body through space or even if we are standing perfectly still, our ability to sense where our body is at any given moment can enhance the harmony of body and mind.

There are many opportunities for you to help your clients raise their awareness and enhance their ability to sense their body in relation to space. In yoga we often guide our students to go inside and inhabit their bodies. To sense what they are feeling as they move with breath from pose to pose. Try one of these practices to help your aging clients boost body awareness in class.

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One practice that is particularly wonderful for seniors is introducing hand mudras into class. Hand mudras are gestures or seals that can improve flexibility and coordination among older adults simply by touching finger to finger. As we age, the fingers of our hands often stiffen and lose flexibility. Mudras help to stretch the fingers and bring sensitivity back into the hands.

Using a mudra in coordination with breath is an excellent way to stimulate an opening to the lungs and heart, open the joints and relieve other tension that may exist in the head, neck or shoulders. Start simple, choose one or two mudras that will help your clients coordinate their fingers, hands, eyes, brain and breath.

One of my favorites, and usually an easy one for senior clients, is the symbol of yoga – the Lotus Mudra. Tied to the heart chakra, the Lotus Mudra is a symbol of purity and helps to open the heart center.

Lotus Mudra

With the base of the palms together, touch the thumbs together and then the little fingers together. Invite the other three fingers to open as wide as possible, like a lotus flower opening. Place the hands in front of the heart with the thumbs facing toward the chest.

Start the breath practice with a floating lotus flower. Inhale and float the flower from the heart up to the third eye (forehead). As you exhale draw the palms closed into prayer hands, squeezing the hands together and taking the elbows out wide to the sides as the hands lower back to heart center. As you start your next inhale, push the heels of the hands together and open into Lotus Mudra. As the flower moves up with breath, imagine that it is rising from the depths of mud and muck, reaching for sunlight. And as you exhale imagine that the petals are drawing inward toward each other to close. Complete ten rounds, breathing in and out with movement. If you use affirmations in class, add “I open my heart to receive whatever comes my way today.”

Integrating mudras into your senior practice is an excellent way to balance mind and body with breath. For more information on mudras, I highly recommend you add Mudras, Yoga in your Hands by Gertrud Hirschi to your personal yoga library.

©NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness, LLC, http://www.namasteworksyoga.com, by: Nancy Levenson

One of the challenges we face as we age is our ability to control and maintain our body’s position as it moves through space. Our ankles or knees may have weakened or our sedentary lifestyles may have caused us to lose touch with our feet and legs.

Utilizing a yoga labyrinth is a great tool for both senior yoga clients and the instructor. Guiding clients in walking meditation through a yoga labyrinth will bring awareness of their balance, body, and breath. With this early assessment, both the client and the instructor have a baseline to work from in improving balance and movement. By bringing the yoga labyrinth back into the classroom often, clients can check in frequently with their progress.

So how do you bring a yoga labyrinth into the senior yoga classroom?

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Making adjustments in a senior yoga class can lead to more chaos than you expected. 

A well trained yoga instructor chooses carefully, when and how to offer an adjustment to one of their clients. You have the intention of approaching the client and making a simple modification that you believe will help your client feel more relaxed and in touch with the purpose and feeling of the pose. But, before you take any action, think through the impact of this small but important teaching objective when working with senior clients.

More than any other population, seniors tend to listen intently to every comment you make and watch every action you undertake.

In a recent class, I approached a senior client and informed her in a soft whisper that I would like to make a small adjustment to her pose. After receiving her acknowledgement, I proceeded to guide her into the pose with more accuracy and ease. When I looked up, the rest of the yoga class was no longer in the pose. Confusion was obvious on their faces and disorder took hold. What where you doing to her? Why were you not doing that to me? Did I do it right or was I doing wrong? Bombarded by their questions, I found the room in utter chaos. A valuable lesson was unfolding for all of us.

When working with seniors, let them know ahead of class that you may be walking around and making small adjustments in various poses to selected students. Let them know that if they are not approached, it’s a sign that they are doing the pose appropriately. Encourage them to focus on what they are feeling in a pose and not on your movement around the classroom. You can then decide whether or not to share any small personal adjustments you make with the class-at-large.

Senior yoga is not simply modifying a pose with props. It is a holistic integration of yoga through body, mind and spirit. While props are and can be used to slowly guide the body into opening, there is much more to consider when attending to the needs of active aged adults.

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The path I walk is one of inspiring seniors to restore optimal health through mind, body and spirit practice. The path is filled with compassion and love for the elders I teach and the joy I receive in return. I’m often looked upon with a quizzical look, a raised eyebrow, a scrunched forehead a far off stare or the words “not me”, as I tell others about my passion in teaching seniors. 

My current students cover a wide spectrum of ages, from 50 to 90, with some classes boosting an average age of 82. It’s these lovely souls – in their later years in life – that I find most enriching in guiding me in my growth as a teacher.

To work with this age segment, one must possess a keen awareness of the aged body, mind and spirit. The body is capable of restoring itself into flexibility, balance and strength. I tell my students often, “that yoga is the turtle in the race to optimal health.” They may not see progress week to week, but at the end of a year, they surprise themselves with the changes their bodies have made.

The mind and spirit also grow through yoga practice. Seniors are at a time in their life when they want to learn and experience new modalities and avenues of health creation. When depressed, saddened, or facing one of life’s many challenges, they learn to grown stronger, realizing their yoga practice is much more than a workout, it’s also a work-in. And, beyond that it’s a community.

I am forever blessed by the many seniors who have appeared on my path. They have taken me on a journey I never expected.  And if you find yourself saying, “Senior Yoga – Not Me”, send them my way.

Last night I found myself bathing in darkness. The entire house was still in silence, everyone sound asleep. In an effort to not wake anyone, I slowly filled the tub with hot water, stepped inside and found myself aglow. My bathtub is surrounded by windows, covered in silhouette sheers. The moon was near full and reflecting its light from the night sky right into my tub. Peacefully floating in the still water, I sat in deep reflection of this lunar outpouring. The moon was reaching out to me, sending its luminescent light and soaking my whole soul. I read somewhere that the symbol for compassion is one full moon, while its image is reflected in one hundred bowls of water. I felt as if I were soaking in a moon bowl.

Below is a meditation I share on being in a moon bowl. 

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Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart … Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. -Carl Jung.

Sharing your insights with others is like opening the heart for all to see. Our hearts are delicate and carry the emotions we feel toward ourselves and all living things. Today my heart is filled with purpose and fear. Purpose, as I embark on a journey of sharing my inner thoughts with you here; and fear as I embark on that same journey of sharing my thoughts with unknown readers. My vision is clear, I’ve looked into my heart and I’m here in the service of others. Regardless of the path, mind, body, or spirit, I open my heart to all who desire assistance in their own journey to awaken. When you open your heart to yoga, you see the light, you shine the light and you receive the light. The actions of the heart have the ability to touch so many. I hope you will visit often and receive some light from the opening of my heart.