Yoga Postures, Meditation and Yoga DVDs

A news report in The Times of India reports that yoga reduces fear of falling in older practitioners. The study was only 12 weeks, and only produced a small percentage of perceived feelings of safety. That is, they asked them how they felt about their likely hood of falling which decreased by 6 percent.

I had one older student, about 74 when she started, who had a very obvious increase in her ability to balance. She had a big balance problem when doing a pose like tree pose she would use a wall or ledge to keep her balance. I told her to take her hand off as much as she could even if it was for a second or two.

And, that’s what she did. At first she could only balance for a second at a time. She would hold on to get into the pose and then let go keeping her hand near the support, then grab it again after a second or two. She was very patient with the process of learning to balance.

After less than a year she told me that she was walking down a steep driveway the night before and realized that she had no fear of falling at all when she would have been very fearful just a few months before.

Amazingly, she had only gotten a little better at letting go of the support. At that point she could balance for three to five seconds, maybe a little longer now and then.

After less than another year she could balance completely. She would use the support to get into the pose, but then she would just stand there and stare at the trees outside the window. She would have such a serene look on her face, it was beautiful.

It only took another few months until she didn’t need support to get into the pose. She would stand near the support anyway. I think it was so she could look out the window. All from learning to balance with support.

Keep practicing, yoga can have amazing affects. A couple of years isn’t that long really, especially when it’s something you enjoy anyway. And, when it brings such an amazing result.