Why Over 40's Need Yin Yoga

The Beauty of Trying

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 21:15:06 GMT

The Beauty of Trying; Why Balancing On One Leg Isn't About Perfection

At the end of our summer break, one of my chair yoga students came up to me and said, “I’ve been practicing balancing on one leg all summer — and I’m no better at it!” She looked discouraged, almost apologetic, as if she had somehow failed.

But she hadn’t failed at all.

I told her that the trying was what mattered — not whether she could hold the balance longer or more steadily. Every time she attempted that one-legged balance, her brain and body were doing something profoundly beneficial.

This is the heart of yoga, especially as we age.

Yoga is often portrayed as a series of shapes to master — poses to refine and perfect, like a sport or a skill to conquer. In younger bodies, that pursuit can sometimes make sense. There is a period of athleticism and external achievement that naturally matches youthful energy.

But for an aging body — a wise body — the practice shifts.

It’s not about how it looks.
It’s not about getting “better” at the shape.
It’s about what happens inside you when you try .

When you stand on one leg, even if you wobble, even if you tip over (please don’t hurt yourself), even if you immediately put your foot back down — your brain is firing neural connections to help you respond, adapt, and stabilize. Your proprioception (inner sense of body position) is being challenged and refined. Your vestibular system (balance centre of the brain) is being stimulated. You are improving reaction time, coordination, and cognitive processing.

In other words — you are exercising your brain just as much as your body.

This is why I see yoga not as an aesthetic practice, but as a longevity practice.

We don’t practice yoga to become experts at yoga. We practice yoga to:

maintain mobility
support joint health
preserve brain function
reduce anxiety
build resilience
cultivate mindfulness
live well in the bodies we have

When we try — whether we succeed or not — we are engaging in a dialogue with our nervous system. The body says, “let’s see what happens if…” and the brain responds with micro-adjustments, feedback loops, and new pathways.

And that matters far more than ever holding a pose perfectly still.

So if you are wobbling — celebrate that.

If you are shaking — wonderful, something is waking up.
If you are tipping over — your body is learning.
If you are trying — you are benefiting.

"Yoga is not a test you can fail —

and the only “wrong” yoga is the one you don’t practice."

To the student who felt discouraged: your effort was progress. Your brain was getting stronger, even if your pose didn’t appear to be.

And to all of us aging with grace — may we remember that our practice is not a performance. It is a conversation with our bodies, a partnership with our breath, and a devotion to staying active, present, and curious.

Not mastering — but exploring.
Not competing — but connecting.
Not conquering — but softening, noticing, and trying.

That is the essence of yoga as we age — and the very heart of why I teach it.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog post, I would love to hear from you – email me at traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com

Click Here to find out how to practice yoga with Tracey.

Click Here to know more about Tracey.

Have you read my other blog posts – click here for more.

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The Art of Letting Go - Aparigraha

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 17:44:04 GMT

"To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own." ~ Jack Kornfield

As the days grow shorter and the warm embrace of summer begins to fade, I find myself feeling a bit wistful. Summer has always been a time of vitality, warmth, and connection with nature. Here in Lakefield, Ontario, where the beauty of the outdoors is so integral to our lives, the change of seasons feels especially poignant. But as a yoga teacher and practitioner, I’m reminded of the importance of embracing the concept of "aparigraha"—the Yama that teaches us about non-attachment and the art of letting go.

What Is Aparigraha?

"Aparigraha" is one of the five Yamas, or ethical guidelines, in the practice of yoga. It encourages us to let go of the things we cling to, whether they are material possessions, emotions, or even seasons. It’s about cultivating a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity, recognizing that holding on too tightly can create tension, anxiety, and even suffering.

Anything we cling to creates a maintenance problem for us. The material items we collect, hoard, and buy because they are on sale or take because they are "free" all occupy space and demand our attention. Subtle attachments come in the form of our images and beliefs about ourselves, about how life should be. These images keep us boxed in.

Many of us hold on to ideas, beliefs and expectations. When you form an opinion of someone or something, how effortlessly can you allow that opinion to change? One of the most difficult things to do is to change our thoughts and ways. Our expectations keep us captive and disgruntled, and we choose our attachments rather than our freedom.

Letting go or letting be is not easy, but we can practice in simple ways and build on that practice.

Embracing the Change of Seasons

The end of summer is a perfect time to practice aparigraha - in a simple, no-fuss way. It’s natural to feel a sense of loss as we say goodbye to the warm days, long evenings, and the freedom that summer often brings. But by practicing non-attachment, we can shift our perspective. Instead of focusing on what we’re losing, we can embrace what the new season has to offer—crisp air, the beauty of fall foliage, and the opportunity to turn inward as the world around us slows down.

In my own practice, I’m learning to let go of the expectation that summer should last forever. (I love summer and fear winter and what it might bring.) By doing so, I’m making room for autumn's joys. This doesn’t mean I’m not sad to see summer go—it simply means I’m allowing myself to feel that sadness without letting it take hold of me.

Letting go of anything, whether a holey old shirt, the summer, a loved one or a pet, can be very hard, bringing up deep-seated feelings and emotions. But learning to sit and acknowledge how you feel can be healing and transformative. Sometimes thinking "I let it be" is kinder to the heart than "I am letting you go".

"Like the breath when it is held too long, the things that nourish us can become toxic."

How You Can Practice Aparigraha

Here are a few ways you can practice aparigraha:

1. Mindful Reflection: Take time to reflect on what you're letting go/be has given you. What experiences, memories, and joys can you carry with you? By acknowledging these, you can relinquish the need to hold on tightly.

2. Gratitude Practice: Cultivate a sense of gratitude. Even when we feel pain and fear, it is still possible to feel gratitude. Sometimes, this can help "rewire" the way we are thinking. Fake it til you make it. Start small. Refocus on what you do have and not what you are losing. Experience abundance.

3. Decluttering: Let go of physical items that no longer serve you. As the seasons change, it’s a great time to clear out clutter and create space for new energy in your life.

4. Breath Work: Focus on the outbreath. Practice deep, mindful breathing as a way to release tension and embrace change. Each exhale is an opportunity to let go. Let go of tension. Let go of holding. Let go of grasping. Just let go.

5. Leave space: Leave some time in your calendar each week for the unexpected to happen. Invite surprise blessings to visit you.

A Personal Journey of Letting Go

For me, practicing aparigraha is a continual journey. It’s not always easy to let go—whether it’s the end of a season, a marriage, a pet, a particular expectation, or even a long-held belief. But I’ve found that when I do, I can experience life more fully, with a sense of peace and acceptance.

As summer ends, I invite you to join me in this practice. Together, we can welcome the changes ahead with grace, knowing that each season, each moment, brings its own beauty and wisdom. Let’s embrace the flow of life, letting go or letting be of what we no longer need and opening our hearts to the possibilities that lie ahead.

With feelings of abundance and respect,

Tracey,

September 2024.

When the Going Gets Tough...Don't Stop!

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 17:20:05 GMT

Maintain a consistent yoga practice, especially during challenging times and health struggles - here's why.

There have been periods of my life when it has been difficult and felt almost impossible to keep my yoga practice going. But what I have learned through my years of practice, is that regardless what my practice looked like or what it consisted of, or how little I did, it helped keep me going through pain, physical and emotional, overwhelm, stress and fear. Maintaining a consistent yoga practice, especially during challenging times or while experiencing health issues, can offer numerous physical, mental, and emotional benefits. Here's why it's important not to give up your yoga practice under such circumstances:

1. **Stress Reduction**: Yoga incorporates breathing techniques, meditation, and mindful movement that can significantly reduce stress levels. During tough times, stress often increases, negatively impacting your overall well-being. A regular yoga practice helps lower cortisol levels and promotes a sense of relaxation, improving your ability to cope with stressors effectively.

2. **Physical Well-being**: Yoga involves a variety of poses and stretches that enhance flexibility, strength, and balance. Engaging in these practices can alleviate physical discomfort and even contribute to the management of certain health issues. By maintaining your practice, you can prevent further physical decline and promote healing.

3. **Mental Clarity and Focus**: Yoga encourages mindfulness and mental clarity. When faced with challenges or health issues, it's easy to become overwhelmed by negative thoughts and emotions. Regular yoga sessions can help clear your mind, improve focus, and provide a fresh perspective, enabling you to make better decisions and find solutions.

4. **Emotional Balance**: Yoga promotes emotional resilience and stability. It can help regulate mood swings, decrease feelings of anxiety or depression, and foster a greater sense of emotional balance. This is especially valuable during tough times when emotions might run high.

5. **Boosted Immune System**: Consistent yoga practice has been linked to a stronger immune system. Given that health issues can weaken immunity, maintaining your yoga routine can potentially contribute to a speedier recovery and reduce the likelihood of further illnesses.

6. **Community and Support**: Many people practice yoga in group settings, creating a sense of community and belonging. When life gets tough or health issues arise, having a supportive community can make a significant difference in your outlook and motivation to keep moving forward.

7. **Resilience Building**: Continuing your yoga practice during challenging times or health setbacks can cultivate resilience. It teaches you to adapt, persevere, and find strength within yourself even when facing adversity. This mindset can spill over into other areas of your life, helping you navigate difficulties more effectively.

8. **Pain Management**: Certain yoga poses and techniques can help manage pain, both chronic and acute. By staying committed to your practice, you can potentially reduce reliance on pain medications and improve your pain tolerance.

9. **Self-Care and Self-Compassion**: Practicing yoga sends a message to yourself that you are worth the time and effort required for self-care. When you're going through tough times or health challenges, it's crucial to prioritize your well-being and treat yourself with kindness.

10. **Long-Term Well-being**: Consistency is key when it comes to reaping the full benefits of yoga. By persevering through difficulties and health issues, you're investing in your long-term physical and mental well-being. The positive effects of a regular yoga practice compound over time and contribute to an improved quality of life.

Ultimately, yoga is a holistic practice that addresses both the physical and mental aspects of well-being. By maintaining your practice during tough times or health struggles, you're equipping yourself with valuable tools to navigate challenges, promote healing, and foster personal growth. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any significant changes to your exercise routine, especially if you're dealing with health issues.

Thank you for reading. In my next blog post I'll address how we can keep a consistent practice going, when the going gets tough.

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog post, I would love to hear from you – email me at traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com

Click Here to find out how to practice yoga with Tracey.

Click Here to know more about Tracey.

Have you read my other blog posts – click here for more.

How Often Should I Practice Yoga?

traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 16:37:52 GMT

This is a question I sometimes hear from those new to yoga - and its a wonderful question.

Approx 3 minute read

When I hear it, I know the asker is enjoying the yoga they are doing, is noticing positive changes in themselves, and wants to continue to further improve their well-being.

Generally, people begin their yoga journey as I did with one class a week, and then maybe add another one after some time. In many yoga schools and traditions, it is recommended to do 3 formal yoga practices a week – this is ideal, and for sure practicing every day will reap many benefits, too. However, this can feel onerous and if approached in the wrong way can set people up for failure, or worse, injury. I believe that if you are already attending one class a week a good way to practice more is to set an intention to gradually incorporate a little more yoga into your everyday. A little bit of yoga every day goes a long way!

During the classes l lead I will sometimes set little “homework” assignments, like movements with the wrists and hands, squeezing the feet together while standing in line at the bank, or a breathing practice. This is the beginning of cultivating awareness of your body and movements, and establishing a small home practice “habit”.

In time movement and breath awareness will be present in everything you do, on and off the yoga mat. But we need to learn and plant the seeds, formally on the yoga mat, in class first, and then later with intention at home, as well.

How frequently you practice yoga, outside of a formal class setting is, of course, entirely up to you, as is the type of yoga you practice i.e. yin, yang, hatha, restorative, etc. Yoga is not just about the physical practice (the asanas or postures) – it is a holistic practice, incorporating movement, stillness, breath, mindfulness, meditation, right speech and living well in harmony with the World. It is reasonable to think more Yoga equals better health. But be careful how you approach it.

Yoga is not a sport

Yoga is not a sport. In a sports environment we are striving for certain results and achievements so that we can be the best at our chosen sport. The goal of most sports is to win, sometimes at all costs. Sports are competitive, often demanding, and frequently have to be dropped or put aside as you age, are injured, or lose your competitive edge. If you bring a competitive spirit or an “I’m going to be the best” attitude to your yoga practice, you will sooner or later run into problems. This attitude is ego driven, but yoga’s not, so it’s important to not let your ego get in the way.

It is reasonable and in line with human nature to set goals for your practice. For example, maybe you’ve managed to work your way up to doing 12 sets of sun salutations a day, and you plan on keeping this up, therefore improving your strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular health. But you will eventually have a day when this is not possible either due to injury, illness, or some other unknown stressor, perhaps the aging process. You may then get depressed that you’ve not attained your goal because your ego will not want to “give up”. This is not yoga.

We need to balance the desire to improve with a strong dose of self-acceptance.

In yoga, we like to use the term “ beginner’s mind ”. This means coming to our practice with a sense of curiosity and mindfulness. Setting aside your ego and meeting yourself where you are in the present moment, cultivating a practice around fully knowing yourself. We use this term because yoga is about understanding your body and your mind and doing what you can do and what feels good for you. It’s not about mindlessly pushing yourself through pain to reach a specific goal.

Yoga holds space for you wherever you are and however you are feeling. There is enough depth and bandwidth in yoga to support you regardless of how you are feeling, physically, mentally, or emotionally. Yoga is for all of life's stages and for all of life’s seasons. The key is to figure out what you need for yourself at these various times and stages.

Each of us will have different amounts of time we can allocate to a consistent practice. It is important to remain flexible and fluid around allocating time and not become too restrictive or set yourself too many rules. If you only have five minutes in a day, don’t say it’s not worth it – just do it. Get down on your mat or sit up straight in your chair and do something even if it’s following the breath for 5 four-part breathing cycles. This will improve your mindfulness, get you in touch with how you are feeling, and centre you to be able to continue your day.

“My goal as a yoga teacher is to help people help themselves to better health and wellness”.

If you are a student of mine that wants to know how much yoga to do so you can improve your well-being, then I’ve pretty much achieved my goal as your yoga teacher. My aim is for my students to find yoga that works for them and then be interested in exploring more of it to better their health and wellness. I want them to discover practices that work for them, take those practices home and do more of them on their own, perhaps with support from recordings in my Virtual Studio .

I want you to take the bits of my formal yoga class that you like, remember, and notice felt good and incorporate that into your everyday routine, a little bit at a time until it’s as natural as brushing your teeth. And then, over time, it will become a mindful habit, a pleasant appointment with your mind and body that you don’t want to miss, and that you wish you could do more. In that way, your health and wellness become a priority.

And it’s for this that I teach yoga.

Tracey Drake

August 2022

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog post, I would love to hear from you – email me at traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com

Click Here to find out how to practice yoga with Tracey.

Click Here to know more about Tracey.

Have you read my other blog posts – click here for more "Tracey wisdom". ��

What's All The Fuss About Meditation?

traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 21:22:33 GMT

"Yoga is the control of the vrittis in the chitta" (Patanjali 1.2)

(approx. 5 minute read)

What is Meditation?

As meditation has gained popularity, with a little help from The Beatles back in the ’60s, a huge amount has been written on what meditation is and what it is not, how to do it, and how not to. Meditation has been associated with everything from affirming ourselves as thin/rich/in love to visualizing ourselves bathed in white light, to sitting cross-legged with eyes closed and doing nothing but contemplating your navel. Meditation is none of these. Meditation is often seen as a way out of the nastiness of life. Meditation will not do this – the nastiness will still be there when you move off your meditation cushion.

So, why then should we meditate??

In a nutshell, meditation helps us to become more awake. It allows us to deal with suppressed emotions and feelings, essentially getting rid of the junk in the mind, and making space to allow us to cultivate compassion and love towards ourselves and others. Easy right?

There’s more – please read on.

Why Meditate?

The Benefits of Meditation - The Juicy Stuff

There has been and continues to be a good deal of research on meditation. Neuroscientists have found that meditators can shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex – brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear. You can maybe think of your amygdala like you would a muscle – the more you work it the stronger it gets. But with the amygdala the more stress you subject it to the stronger it becomes at detecting and reacting to stress, or fear. It's a caveman thing – it is what helped us survive to this point.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, recorded the brain waves of stressed-out employees of a high-tech firm in Madison, Wisconsin. The subjects were split randomly into two groups, 25 people were asked to learn meditation over eight weeks, and the remaining 16 were left alone as a control group.

All participants had their brain waves scanned three times during the study: at the beginning of the experiment, when meditation lessons were completed 8 weeks later, and four months after that. The researchers found that the meditators showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe and claimed to be calmer and happier than before the trial.

There is also a good deal of research material on the benefits of neural rewiring – but we’ll save that for another blog post.

De-Stressing

The word meditation and the word medication have the same prefix derived from the Latin word Medicus, meaning to care or to cure, indicating that maybe meditation is the most appropriate medicine or antidote for stress. Deep relaxation techniques and breath awareness meditation are vital components in enabling the relaxation response to be activated; a quiet calmness is the most effective remedy for a busy and overworked mind. Meditation will strengthen your insular – the area of the brain that senses your internal state, “gut feelings”, and helps you feel empathy and will – help calm the amygdala – the “alarm bell” of the brain, that responds readily to negative stimuli.

Meditation can improve your sleep

Sleep and meditation complement each other. When you sleep well, it helps you to be able to sit for meditation. And meditation enhances the sleeping experience in more than one way. During meditation, the serotonin levels in your body go up. Low serotonin levels are linked to insomnia and depression. Those who meditate sleep better. Meditation increases REM sleep. There are meditation practices that can be used just prior to sleep at night, calming your body and mind, so you quickly fall asleep and attain deep sleep. Brief meditations throughout your day can help you get through your work with less tension.

Can I Not Just Sleep? Meditation vs. Sleep

The reason for the confusion between meditation and sleep lies in the assumption that they are equal. Sleep occurs in different stages of light and deep sleep. Sleep is characterized by delta waves in the brain. During sleep, our bodies relax and the mind switches to autopilot. This restful state is required to restore damaged cells and tissue.

Meditation produces theta waves in the frontal area of the brain highlighting deep relaxation. Alpha waves appear on the posterior of the brain and signify wakeful rest. There are hardly any delta waves during meditation. In sleep we are unconscious; in meditation, we are fully awake – or hope to be ��

Both leave your mind rested, but meditation and sleep are two different forms of relaxation. So you may feel refreshed after a period of meditation, but it is not a substitute for sleep.

And for me the most compelling reason to meditate….

Meditation allows us to deal with our “stuff”. Mediation is not about stopping all thought – there’s no way we can do that, even when we think we are not thinking we are having the thought “oh, I’m not thinking.”

As we sit and become very still, quietly following the breath, we become more “awake.” Most of the stuff that churns in the mind is 99% nonsense and not useful to us at all, just chatter. But every now and then a suppressed thought, emotion, or feeling will bubble to the surface and make its voice heard. At that point we can lovingly acknowledge it, maybe sit and ponder it, question where it came from, or file it away to be addressed another day.

As we continue to “practice” meditation, we may get better at allowing the suppressed thoughts, emotions, or feelings to bubble to the surface, and we become stronger and more mindful at being able to deal with these, possibly challenging suppressed issues.

One of my yoga teachers, Paul Grilley, whom I will be eternally grateful to for his teachings on meditation, suggests that in aging people stop learning and that’s why they get old. They can’t learn because the mind is full of suppressed emotions and feelings. It takes energy to keep those feelings down. Meditation allows those feelings and emotions to bubble to the surface and be acknowledged and addressed in, hopefully, a healthy way. The modern research is not fully completed yet, but the ancient yogis knew from lived experience that meditating helped keep their minds young, agile, and free from confusion and misperception.

To me sitting in meditation consistently is an appointment with my mind I do not want to miss – because who knows …. it may keep old age, dementia, and confusion away. The physical body will decay, it's meant to, but maybe I can keep my mind in good shape – time will tell, but why take the risk of not trying?

So now we know the benefits of meditating but how do we go about doing it?

Finding Time

Why do we treat our future selves like different people? When we think of our future selves, our future needs and emotions don't feel as real and pressing as our present desires. Future you will always have more time and energy than present yourself. Future you is free from anxiety and stress is better organized and more motivated. At least that’s what we tend to tell ourselves when we think about our future selves. Thinking so highly of our future selves would be fine if we could count on our future selves to behave so nobly. But more typically when we get to the future, our ideal self is nowhere to be found.

Is there an important change or task you’re putting off hoping that a future you with more willpower will show up? Did you talk yourself out of something today, telling yourself you will have more time tomorrow?

If you don’t have time today, you won’t have time tomorrow.

Make a commitment to finding time to meditate .

Where? Anywhere you feel comfortable and won’t be disturbed or distracted. On your bed, a corner of the room. Try to make it the same place each time.
When? Whenever it works for you. But be consistent. Consistency is key and the practice is compounded.
How long? Think baby steps. Don’t overthink this. If you only have 2 minutes that’s fine. There are no guidelines for this – it’s up to the individual. Extend your practice at a pace that feels right for you.
Sit and be still. Get comfy, but not so comfortable you fall asleep! Use props, a chair, the wall. Try to keep the spine long. Place hands in the lap or on the thighs. Either close your eyes or soften your gaze on a point 2/3 feet in front of you.
Guidance from someone with a few years of meditation behind them is helpful. Meditating with several others can be powerful.
It’s never too late to begin.
The secret of Meditation is that you are not the doer, you are the watcher, the witness.

There is one step to take: Disengage our awareness from all external activities and let it rest within ourselves.

The spirit of meditation is to learn how to watch your thoughts.

Meditation covers a vast arena of experiences and activities; it enables us to see our own limitations and self-centered nature more clearly and to discover the depth and beauty that lies within us. Practicing meditation allows us to learn to trust in ourselves and stop trying to make things better and better. Doing that breeds discontentment and means we can become habitually dissatisfied. We habitually suppress the bad and only want to have the good.

It is both an experience and a practice – an experience of oneness, of being with who we really are, as well as the practice, that enables us to acknowledge and be ok and not “run” from that awareness and experience.

It’s completely free! All you need are a few techniques to get you started and then the rest is up to you. Why wouldn’t you try – it might just save your mind.

June 2021

If you have questions or comments regarding this blog post, I would love to hear from you – email me at traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com

Have you read my other blog posts – click here for more Tracey wisdom – lol

Read More: Kelly McGonigal’s article “This is Your Brain on Meditation”

Watch Sarah Lazar, "Meditation Can Change Your Brain"

My Favourite meditation books:

How to Meditate by Pema Chodron

Buddha’s Brain by Rick Hanson

Be The Change by Ed and Deb Shapiro

Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

The Paradox of Standing Balances

traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 20:52:22 GMT

"A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving"

Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 27

I designed the lesson plan for yesterday evening’s class, “Yoga for Happy Legs and Hips,” with a flow and quite a few poses that required finding balance. We moved from various lunge positions to standing and also worked with standing balances, i.e. standing on one leg. At the end of class, as usual, I asked if anyone had any questions, and someone asked what they needed to do to improve their balance. Questions and comments around “poor” balance often come up, so I thought I would speak a little more on balance here.

Balancing postures can teach us so much about ourselves. In fact, all our yoga postures and practices do (this is one of the essential reasons why we do yoga). Standing balances not only improve our physical strength and stability, but they shift us out of our heads and into our bodies. The mental effort of trying to balance, control the foot and body wobbles, stay upright and strong, force the mind to centre and ground and focus on one thing – balancing. We have to focus to physically balance, and that is good focus for the mind. We’re strengthening our mind muscles too.

Finding balance while standing on one leg is influenced by many factors. One of the biggest is your mental or emotional state when you approach the pose. If you’re feeling uncentered or ungrounded, emotionally and/or mentally, in anyway, this is definitely going to show up in your balance physically.

There are many reasons why you may feel “off-centre” – if you are feeling particularly buoyant from good news, spun out from a crappy day, what you ate before class, what you didn’t eat, hydrated or dehydrated, the weather, happy, anxious, worried, different from the position of the moon, for women, where you are in your menstrual cycle, perimenopause, the list goes on… These things can have a huge impact on our physical, emotional and mental balance. The point being, there will likely always be something to throw you “off balance.”

I have quite a few years’ yoga experience, and I know that my own physical balance can vary quite dramatically throughout a month and even from the beginning of the day versus the end.

I think the key thing in approaching balance postures is mindset. And, I think we all agree, this concept holds true for any challenges we face in life, as well as our yoga practice.

With an approach that is more accepting of “what is,” being OK with toppling over (provided you don’t injure yourself), a little more relaxed and “loosey goosey”, and not striving for a result that meets your expectations, you will, I believe, make attempting balancing postures much more accessible and rewarding. Trying too hard to balance is one of the biggest stumbling blocks we, as students of yoga, meet in standing balances. We grip, grasp, tighten, stiffen, stop breathing all in an effort to balance.

Start small and build up. Build a solid foundation first. Breathe. Take your time. Hold on to something if you need to – be OK with that, be kind to yourself, be curious. Explore. Have an open, enquiring mind. By letting go of how we think it should be or look, we learn to accept where we are. And then we soften, relax, accept, let go and voila! Suddenly we can balance better than we did before.

When you approach your standing balance postures, check in with yourself first. Be OK with it maybe not going well. Have no expectations. Be content with knowing that no matter how “badly” you perceive your balance to be, the act of trying to balance will help centre and ground you, physically and emotionally. Play with your balance, smile and laugh when you lose it. Take a few stabilizing breaths and try again. It’s all good! Congratulate yourself for trying! You’ll also be strengthening the big muscles in the legs and your core.

By working with our yoga practice in this way we begin to snatch glimpses of how we can take our yoga off the mat and into our everyday lives. When faced with a challenge, check in with yourself first, breathe positive energy into the situation, be ok with it not going well or looking how you think it should, be content with knowing you are trying and learning, have no expectation, have an open, enquiring mind. Be kind. Always.

Tracey Drake

June 19, 2020

How Flexible Do You Need To Be To Do Yoga?

traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 19:51:36 GMT

I Wish I had a Dollar for Every Time I Heard This.....

“Oooo I could never do yoga! No way am I flexible enough!”

It’s a comment every yoga teacher and dedicated yoga student hears when they say they do yoga to someone who doesn’t. I have heard this so many times. I heard it yesterday, and I’ll probably hear it again in the next couple of days.

That comment is usually followed up with “I can’t even touch my toes – I could never do yoga!” (I’m not sure why being able to touch toes with straight legs is considered a yardstick of flexibility or even health. And, assuming one has relatively healthy knees, why not just bend the knees?)

So, here’s the thing my friends, and I’m asking for your assistance with this. We need to change that thinking around. I’m sure there are a lot of people who would benefit from doing some mindful movement that are missing out on improved health and well-being because they are worried about what will be asked of them if they join a yoga class.

Next time you are telling your friends, family, and colleagues about your yoga practice and they say the “I’m not flexible enough” comment, here’s what you’re going to say:

“I get that you’re not feeling flexible, I feel that way sometimes too, but that is why I need to do yoga, and you need it too.”

Saying you’re not flexible enough to do yoga is a bit like saying you’re too dirty to have a shower. Yoga is the solution, just like a shower would be.

There are some schools of yoga that follow strict alignment protocols for postures and some that require the practitioner to acquire a certain competency at one level before proceeding to the next. I am not dismissing those styles – many people enjoy and benefit from practicing in that way. But, in my opinion, approaching yoga like this can lead to competitiveness, and if a person is not able to “achieve” the “perfect” pose, they can come away with feelings of dissatisfaction, inadequacy or simply “not being good enough” –lacking in some way. This is absolutely not what yoga is about, and there is no health benefit to feeling that way.

And let’s be clear – yoga is not just about the physical form. It’s not a “workout”, and to approach yoga in that way completely misses the essence of the practice.

Yoga is beneficial for everyone, but not all yoga POSES are beneficial for everyone.

One size does not fit all. We are all individuals. We all have different biology and biography. The way our bones grow and form and how they fit in their joints, the length of our limbs, body proportions, the muscle insertions and attachments, the fascial webs and sacks, organ locations, injuries, trauma, pregnancy … the list goes on. All this and more will affect how you move and make shapes with your body. How you feel on any given day makes a difference too. What you eat, how you slept, where you’ve been, and where you are going all affect your being. And I’m only considering the physical aspects here. I’m not addressing mental and emotional health in this particular post.

So much affects how we habitually move in this life, that we cannot expect to do one single yoga pose just like the person on the mat next to us, or the one in a posed IG post.

The style of yoga I teach will not get you on the cover of Yoga Journal. I cannot get my leg behind my head. I couldn’t 20 years ago and I wouldn’t even try now! And really – why? What is the health benefit?

The yoga I practice and ask my students to explore is a functional approach. Rather than trying to “master” or “perfect” a yoga posture, we make shapes and/or movements with our bodies to target certain muscle groups or areas of the body. I believe this is a healthy and inclusive way to approach yoga. I will never insist your pose should look a certain way. Provided you are feeling something in the area of the body we are focusing on, then you are doing the pose correctly – and you get to decide how intense those sensations should be. And yes, the pose you are doing may look entirely different to your neighbour – and that is to be expected. We are not clones.

Yoga poses can be described aesthetically or functionally:

An aesthetic description focuses on how a pose should look.
A functional description focuses on the experience for the individual.

The yoga you practice should benefit you. Your yoga should replenish your beautiful and amazing body, mind, and soul! I truly want my students to come away from my classes feeling better than when they arrived. Not dejected, defeated, humiliated, or frustrated, but more aware of their body and what it needs to move with comfort and ease, and be happy in the knowledge that the yoga they practiced today, regardless of how it looked, will benefit them tomorrow.

Use it or lose it

We must keep moving as we age. Bones weaken, muscles shrink, fascia becomes stickier, joints degrade. Mobility and flexibility decrease without movement. All tissues of the body need to be placed under a degree of tension from time to time to remain healthy.

If you struggle to tie your shoelaces now, it’s not going to get any easier a year from now if you don’t challenge the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia that support you in that movement. Yoga, approached in a mindful, functional way, can help you with that – and who knows, maybe it will help you be a little more flexible in the mind too. There are some very positive results to a regular yoga practice that serves you as an individual.

So remember, if today you’re not feeling very flexible, you need to do some yoga!

Tracey Drake

Summer 2021

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Why Over 40's Need Yin Yoga

traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 15:25:36 GMT

The hard and stiff will be broken; The soft and supple will prevail.

Tao Te Ching vs 76

I’ve been practicing yoga for over 20 years and yin yoga for the past 10. I’ve not always practiced consistently – throughout that time have been periods when I’ve done very little. So I know that I feel and move better when I am doing yoga consistently, especially now that I’m in my mid-50s. And I firmly believe that yin yoga is the real key to remaining mobile, moving well, and being able to ease those niggly aches and pains as you age.

We start life floppy.

If we look at the arc of aging, which everyone (hopefully) follows – albeit, at faster or slower rates – we begin life as a floppy baby with huge amounts of mobility but no stability. Newborn babies have to be handled carefully because they have no internal stability – this is yang-like. Then we start to get stronger and stiffen, becoming more yin-like. We gain stability as we age. When we are young, we don’t need to work on gaining more mobility, we most likely have all we need, but we do need to work on building our muscles and gaining strength. This is the yang time of life, so we need yang forms of exercise – running, jumping, playing sports, etc. Somewhere around our mid-20s to mid-30s, we reach the optimal balance between yin and yang, between mobility and stability. But the arc of aging continues, and we start to move into our yin phase, continuing to stiffen and lose mobility. Eventually, we end up completely rigid, as rigor mortis sets into our dead bodies. As we get older, and more yin-like we need a yin form of exercise to keep us mobile until that day.

“We are born soft and supple;

Dead, we are stiff and hard.”

Tao Te Ching 76

Yin and Yang….Balance

Most styles of yoga, and exercise in general, in the Western World are heavily focused on exercising the muscles of the body. This is needed to remain strong and stable, and to maintain healthy bone density and heart health. But by only exercising the muscles we are missing important tissues of the body that only increase in importance as we age – the fascial networks all over the body. These networks incorporate the ligaments, tendons, superficial and deep fascial networks, joints, and even our bones. It’s not our muscles that hold us together, it’s our fascial networks (aka our connective tissue).

Strengthening our muscles shortens them, which is great when we’re young and unstable, but not so great as we age and become stiffer anyway. I want to be clear here. I am not suggesting that exercising the muscles is bad – not at all. It is most important that we regularly stress the muscles in the body to keep them strong.

However, if you run, cycle, walk, garden, go to the gym, or participate in regular daily activity, you are working your muscles (that’s good), but doing very little for your joints. And as we age it’s typically not our muscles that start to let us down but our joints and fascia. They begin to degenerate and that is where the practice of yin yoga provides us over 40 somethings with a beautiful complement to our muscle focused forms of exercise.

Yin yoga allows us to safely and gently target the deep, less stretchy tissues of the body, and by doing so we can maintain or improve elasticity in our bodies, support our joints, and stay flexible and mobile – hopefully well into old age.

In our yin yoga practice, we place ourselves in various shapes to focus on specific areas of our bodies. We relax the muscles – this is important. Fascia wraps around and travels through muscles. It is fascia that gives our muscles shape and form – without fascia our muscles would be blobs of shapeless jelly. It is the relaxing of the muscles that allow us to “stretch” or “stress” our fascia. Here’s something for you to try by way of an example:

Make a claw with your hand and stiffen it up like tiger claws. Now try and move your index finger. Won’t move right? No stretch.

Now shake out your hand, relax it. Place the tip of your index finger against the index finger of the opposite hand (keep it relaxed) and move the finger back. Feel the stretch? Good right?

The yang tissues of the body, i.e. the muscles, blood, skin, and heart need yang forms of exercise, like running, pumping weights, cycling, walking … anything that’s rhythmical and repetitive. The heart beats with a steady rhythm. Running has a steady rhythm – getting the idea?

Yin tissues, i.e. the ligaments, tendons, and joints of the body, do better when stressed in a yin way. These tissues wrap, support, join, attach, and divide. They are often strong and hard to break, plastic and inflexible. They do not do well with yang forms of exercise. It is the yin tissues that dry out and harden as we age, and we need to apply yin forms of “stress” to these tissues to keep them healthy, juicy, sliding, and mobile. That stress is moderate, steady traction over several minutes. There should be nothing rhythmical or repetitive about a “yin stress”. That would be like bending a credit card in half, backwards and forwards several times – eventually, it will break down.

So this is why muscles need to stay relaxed during our yin practice. To get into the tissues that are getting harder, drier, and less pliable every day we don’t do something to help ease that.

The Theory of Exercise

All forms of exercise share two features:

First, we stress the tissues.
Then, we must let the tissues rest.

What we always need in anything is balance. Stress is generally considered negative in our culture, but that’s because we forget the “rest” part of the theory. But to have little or no stress in our lives is as damaging as having too much stress. We need to stress the body and we need to rest it. There is a yin/yang balance here that leads to health. Too much of anything is not healthy.

On a personal note

I’m in Guernsey, Channel Islands, visiting my parents as I write this. They’re both in their 80s now and it’s been almost three years since I was able to visit last. I notice some changes in Mum and Dad, but on the whole, they’re in great shape – for their age.

Neither Mum nor Dad is walking as much as they used to. They loved to walk and there are some beautiful places for it in Guernsey – beaches, cliff paths, and everything in between. Mum had a bit of a health problem recently that made walking challenging for her, but she appeared to be recovered , so I asked her why she’s not walking more.

“It’s my back” she responded, “but I think I do well for my age”. And it’s true, she is doing well. But what does that mean?

I watch her move, and I see the smaller steps with the heels dragging, less swing from the hips, less flexion at the ankle, a deeper curve in the lumbar area, and the beginnings of a stoop, a rounding of the shoulders. All typical signs of aging in the human body – we often see this in older people. The fascia, which is everywhere in the body, is becoming less pliable, less juicy, restricting movement, and creating unwanted tension. How can we slow or stop that gradual seizing up? Two words….Yin yoga (or “keep moving”)

Use it or lose it. It’s that simple.

I firmly believe that the gentle traction yin yoga gives to the tissues we mostly ignore can only benefit us. Yin yoga is a moderate practice. We don’t sweat, push or strive for anything– we just make the shape, as best we can for our physical body type, and then watch and wait. It’s not sexy, flashy, or ego-driven, but it works. And then there are the mystical energetic benefits of the practice – but that’s for another blog, another time.

Thank you for reading ��.

Tracey Drake,

December 2021

“Short on time” bullet points:

Our fascial networks (connective tissues, i.e. ligaments, tendons, bursa, joints, fascia) dry out and harden as we age.
Most forms of exercise are muscle focused. Strengthening the muscles shortens them.
Focusing on just the muscles addresses only a fraction of the tissues that keep us moving.
It’s not our muscles that cause us problems as we age, it’s our joints.
Muscles don’t hold us together, our fascial networks do.
Yin yoga is a moderate practice that allows us to safely “work” the fascial networks.
Everyone can do and benefit from applying yin styles of stretching to yin tissues.
Yin yoga will help keep you supple and moving.
Yin yoga is a beautiful, gentle, complementary practice to regular forms of exercise.
Yin yoga Rocks!

If you would like to know more about the classes I offer please click here . If you would like to chat you can reach me at traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com

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Being Grateful Everyday

traceydrakeyoga@gmail.com — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 17:47:36 GMT

“The secret of happiness is to count your blessings

while others are adding up their troubles.”

~William Penn

Did you know that gratitude has been scientifically proven to strengthen your immune system and make you happier, more optimistic and, contented, as well as less lonely and isolated? It’s true, and although science has just recently caught up to this fact, the ancient yogis, Buddhists and, Daoists have known it for years - all talk about gratitude in their ancient learnings.

I often, during a class, suggest my students stop and take a moment to reflect on a few things they are grateful for.

Sometimes it’s also helpful to bring to mind a thing, person or, situation that you perceive as not being something that you should feel grateful for, like a challenging work situation, if you’re feeling unwell, your garden fence blowing down in a storm, or the loss of a much-loved pet.

It is human nature to go to a negative place when things are not as we feel we want them to be. We very quickly see how we will be negatively impacted by a situation and often don’t look for the positives. We can often not even consider the possibility of a positive outcome. We are wired for “negative bias” - it’s what helped us survive as cave people.

It’s not always easy to cultivate an “attitude of gratitude”

We can all spin into discontent, particularly into today’s social media world, where we are inundated with pictures and comments of friends, acquaintances, and maybe even strangers seemingly perfect, exciting, blessed lives. We compare and then can become disgruntled. It’s amazing how fast this can happen. We start down a very slippery, steep slope, maybe seeing an Instagram story of friends having fun while we are working, or a family member’s beautiful house and garden while we are renting a single room apartment. What starts as grumblings of discontent can quickly turn into envy. Instead of being happy for these people, and grateful for what we have, we slip out of harmony and gratitude and tumble down the discontent rabbit hole into unhappiness.

With our negativity bias, we are far more likely to notice what is wrong with our lives than what is right. We can easily spend more time thinking about people we are in conflict with or dislike than those we love and are in harmony with.

Being Grateful Will Change You

It’s impossible to feel grateful and unhappy in the same moment. Practicing gratitude protects us from our own pettiness and smallness and keeps us centered in the joy and abundance of our own life. When the winds of discontent stir us, it is the conscious cultivation of gratitude that keeps us strongly rooted in contentment.

Discontentment is the illusion that there can be something else in this moment. There isn’t and there can’t be. The moment is complete. Finding yourself grateful in this very moment, even when sad, bored, impatient, depressed, disappointed or grieving builds our ability to be that tall, strong tree so rooted in the earth that great winds cannot topple it. Try it.

Practice Right now

This mindful present moment practice takes only a few breaths:

Wherever you are lengthen the spine. Take a few conscious long breaths, lengthen the exhale a little. Relax the face, shoulders, hands, fingers and, belly.
Think of a person, event or, situation you are finding challenging or struggling with.
Notice what happens to your breath and body as you recall the person, event or, situation.
Now find something to be grateful for surrounding this person, event or, situation. If you can’t find anything give thanks for the opportunity of growth in dealing with this challenge.
Observe how you feel. If you feel so inclined you can journal any observations.

Last tip: Even if you’re not “feeling it” do it anyway. Fake it ‘til you make it. It gets easier with practice and you will find yourself naturally looking for the opportunity to be grateful when ill feelings, discontent or, unhappiness arise.

“Some people grumble that roses have thorns;

I am grateful that thorns have roses.” Alphonse Kerr

Santosha (Contentment) Invites us to Fall in Love with Our Own Life

Santosha is one of the “Niyamas” (observances) as outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras:

“Contentment, being at peace with yourself and others: Look to yourself and your innate goodness for happiness; that is the only place you will truly find it.”

Santosha also means being present. Rather than wishing for things to be different in your life, accept and appreciate the reality of what is. Do you need things to be different to be happy? Choose to be happy now. Cultivate santosha by making gratitude a daily practice. Notice the moments you are happy, even if they seem to be few and far between. Keep a gratitude journal. Count your blessings. Remind yourself often, “I have enough. I am enough.”

Cultivate an attitude of gratitude every day.

Find ways to practice gratitude every day. Here are a few tips to help you get started. I would also love to hear your tips and tricks for cultivating an “attitude of gratitude”.

If you notice you’re feeling irritable or stressed, pause for a few minutes and challenge yourself to notice something, anything, to be grateful for right now.
Start a blessings list. Write down something you appreciate, then another thing. Number your blessings and add a few each day until you reach 100 - maybe keep it on the fridge in full view.
Practice the “Loving Kindness” mantra I frequently use at the end of class, and send to a loved one, a friend, a foe, a person neutral to you, yourself:

May my heart be filled with loving kindness;

May I be well;

May I be at peace and at ease;

May I be happy.

When you wake in the morning quote this from Maya Angelou:

“This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.”

Fake it ‘til you make it - if a friend or family member has something that may make you envious, wish them well in their good fortune anyway, before you tumble down the rabbit hole of discontent.
If you are grieving a loss, allow yourself to grieve, but also try to give thanks for the precious time you had with the person, pet, plant, thing, etc. - this also gets easier with practice.
Remember - always be kind to you. Everything you are is enough.

There is a simple saying to keep in mind, “The Tao loves a grateful person.” A contrasting thought, who or what likes an ungrateful person? Ahhh, there you go!

With that, I am deeply grateful to all my students, past and present, and thank you for reading my blog!

Happy practicing,

Tracey

Why Over 40's Need Yin Yoga

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Tao Te Ching vs 76