What a wonderful way to welcome the morning. Over 100 participants joined NamasteWorks Yoga + Wellness and the Highlands Ranch Metro District in the first Saturday FREE Yoga in the Park. This joint promotion is designed to bring out all adult ages and levels to experience a gentle morning practice to start their day in a calmer and more peaceful way. The FREE Yoga in the Park program runs all summer long.  Click here for full schedule.

This was truly an inspiring teaching moment and I encourage you to join me any Wednesday or Saturday and meet other like-minded individuals as  we welcome in the day.

When you find your senior yoga clients already moving into a perceived pose as if it were second nature, it’s time to challenge them with subtle changes that can also challenge their brain. Every time we move our body, our brain initiates its own muscle memory, so allow yoga to actively work the body, the breath and the brain in a well coordinated practice.

Make sure to work both sides of their brain, as well. With the left side of the brain active in coordination of movement, invite the right brain to participate in the practice through the use of visualizations.

Recently, I challenged my class with the following simple supine warm-up. It involves visualization and targeted slow movement coordinated with breath. While it appears simple, test it on your clients and have them observe if they feel the brain working out as actively as the rest of the body.

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Build a walking yoga practice with your seniors, get them outdoors and let them experience the impact of their toes, feet, ankles, knees, hips and overall body motion while walking on the uneven earth.

I recently read a wonderful book by Ila and Garrett Sarley, Walking Yoga. There was a quote in this book that I have always felt important no matter what your yoga practice, “Believe nothing about yoga that you don’t directly experience yourself.”

I had been working for almost two years helping my senior yoga students in understanding the importance of sensing what the body was feeling, how the body is connected, how all the muscles work together and the importance of good posture and continued motion of the foot.

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