This entry was posted on Nov 26, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
Just lately a former highschool classmate posted a meme that caught my eye. It went one thing like this: “At my age, after I drop one thing on the ground I’ve to resolve whether or not it’s definitely worth the hassle to bend over and decide it up.” Many different former classmates chimed in to commiserate. I used to be shocked. I by no means even assume twice about bending over to select one thing up off the ground. In that second, I felt such gratitude for yoga follow.
I began practising within the early Nineteen Eighties, after I was in my 20s. On the time, I felt so lucky to have been born with a hypermobile physique that might do just about any pose. For years, I took full benefit of my pure bendiness to follow a number of the “fancy” poses. I loved the reward of my academics and fellow college students. After all, my flexibility wasn’t one thing I’d labored for; I used to be born with it. However regardless of, the reward felt good.
All the things Adjustments, Even Yoga Follow
I’d all the time thought that I’d be doing poses like Hanumanasana (Monkey Pose) and Eka Pada Rajakapotasana (Full Pigeon Pose) for the remainder of my life. However my 50s introduced a impolite awakening. The cartilage in my shallow hip sockets (aka “hip dysplasia”) had worn all the way down to nothing. These hypermobile hip joints that had given me a lot ego satisfaction had reached their expiration date.
No quantity of yoga follow may save my hip joints. In 2015 and 2016, I had each side changed. Within the years previous the surgical procedures, I skilled a little bit of what my classmate wrote about. As time handed, I misplaced easy features that I’d beforehand taken with no consideration. I had to make use of my arms to select my legs as much as get them right into a automotive. I couldn’t sleep on my left facet. If I dared to alter positions in mattress, I skilled searing ache. Getting up off the ground was awkward.
Dwelling with Ease
After the surgical procedures, the return to regular perform was virtually fast. Many years of yoga follow had cultivated power, agility and steadiness in my physique. I used to be strolling with out crutches 5 days publish surgical procedure. Inside per week, getting up off the ground—with out utilizing my arms—was straightforward once more. I may flip over in mattress with out ache. My fast restoration impressed timeless gratitude for yoga follow.
I not intention to maintain practising Monkey Pose or Full Pigeon if I make it to age 90. In truth, although my physique can nonetheless simply kind these shapes, I’ve stopped practising them.
As a substitute, I’ve original my follow with the intention of dwelling my greatest life on this physique going ahead. My yoga follow is now designed to permit me to dwell gracefully on this physique, so I can negotiate stairs, hike in nature and squat in my backyard. I by no means need to need to assume twice about choosing one thing up off the ground. And naturally, there’s the mind-body facet of follow that underlies all of it—that feeling of calm power that enables me to fulfill life’s challenges with extra grace.
Gratitude for Yoga Follow
Most of my yoga college students are in my age vary, a lot of them a lot older. Each single certainly one of them can bend over and decide issues up, and follow yoga on the ground with out concern that they may not have the ability to get again up. We’re all just about over the concept there’s any profit to wedging our ankles behind our heads. What’s essential is having the ability to take pleasure in dwelling in these our bodies, at the same time as they evolve with age.
Fancy poses might be enjoyable. However direct your focus to these easy standby poses that may enable your follow to evolve with you. And each occasionally, bear in mind to mirror in your gratitude for yoga follow and the dedication you’ve made to preserving your physique robust, agile and balanced.
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Follow and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third e book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.