Tips for Your Boomer Years

Part of learning a yoga practice is about learning patience. You move slowly and deliberately, you breathe slowly, you don’t rush. For us baby boomers, that is a nice change from exercise like aerobics, for instance. “Yoga is not about judgment,” the instructor often says. You learn to do your best and not judge yourself or others for how well they do. Today, I got a real lesson in what non-judgment is all about.

I go to yoga class at the local YMCA twice a week and it’s always crowded. I wish they would add more classes but so far, it’s only Monday and Wednesday. You have to go early or you end up squeezed into a small spot with your feet in someone else’s face - and someone’s feet in your face. I always go in early so I don’t have to fight for a spot but there are always stragglers who come in and disrupt things after we’re well into our deep breathing. Since I figure yoga is the place to learn to be patient with others, as well as myself, I usually try not to get irritated with them.

Today, though, we were doing our beginning breathing and a woman came in. She stopped and looked around and asked the teacher if there was a wall she could sit by to do her yoga. The instructor was very nice and a place was found. I thought to myself, “Well, if you’d come on time, you’d have had a spot on any wall here.”

As she settled in, the woman in front of me offered to trade places with her. The latecomer said “Thanks so much. I have MS and I have to have a wall in case I fall over.”

I guess we all need lessons sometimes in not passing judgment on people and we need to remember to count our own blessings. I’m nearly 60 years old, a senior by many people’s standards, and I’m at a time in life when many people have multiple health problems. Here I am though, sitting in yoga class, probably healthier than I was when I was 30. The late comer to yoga class with MS was probably in her 30’s.

I have to commend her for being there, for doing what she can to be proactive in helping her body overcome a terrible disease like MS. I have to remember too that you never know what someone else’s story is and it’s always better to think kind thoughts and give people the benefit of the doubt.

So, for me yoga class isn’t just about learning how to do a better down dog or proving to myself that I really CAN stretch my body into all those pretzel poses - well, I’m getting there anyway. Yoga is part of the journey that is teaching me to travel through life more slowly to savor each moment, to be grateful for what I have, and not pass judgment on others - or myself. The older I get, the more important this lesson seems.