As I brought to a close a “Yoga Stretch” class that I hold every Monday night, I mentioned the following to my hardy group of students.   Now, this is not your typical  Hollywood yoga class.  There are no yoga bunnies in the front row nor is there any rock music playing, just a group of aging adults who want some flexibility and balance in their bodies.  The oldest is 76 and the youngest is 45.  All were intimidated to go to any of the local yoga classes which here in West Hollywood seem to be on every other block along with Starbucks!

As children most of us had unlimited motion to play with our bodies.  Now, unfortunately, because the majority of people never hear of stretching until much later in life, it suddenly becomes to dangerous and uncomfortable to try much more than raising one’s arms.  What this thought process does is rewrite our script for the second half of our life.  Old people are going to be stiff, in pain and uncomfortable their bodies.  It reads as if it was written in stone.  Unless you’ve had some horrific aggressive surgeries there is no reason why you can’t bring flexibility back into your life.  Whenever we seem to try something new, we unconsciously judge ourselves  by saying; “I can’t do this I’m too stiff!  No one says that getting back in shape is going to be without its detractors.  What I teach my group is to use their voices in more positive ways like: “I can do this.” or “I love moving like this.”  Our own voice, the voice we were born with can be our ally or our friend.  It’s the voice we know the best, and should never be used voicing negativity against ourselves.  It hurts, and it carries a lot more weight and harm then you think.

One student of fifty four years had this to say: “I’m going to make the second half of my life as vibrant as the first half, only this time with more awareness!”

John Shinavier is a 500 hr. registered Yoga Teacher/Therapist and has been doing yoga most of his whole life.

For more information on John go to <a href=”http://www.thumbtack.com/Kali-Natha-Yoga-the-yoga-of-developing-the-Mystic-within-you-Los-Angeles-CA/service/1062451″>Kali Natha Yoga, the yoga of developing the Mystic within you.</a>