No matter what your age, the benefits from practicing yoga can be life-changing. Yoga enables individuals to practice self-awareness and live in the present moment.
According to Melissa Spencer, executive director and founder of Peaceful World Yoga, which provides services and programs in mindfulness and yoga for schools, businesses, communities and individuals throughout the Colorado Front Range, the main goal of yoga for the general population is not the pose itself or becoming flexible, but rather to create a space that lets people find a way to respond to the specific situations and challenges experienced in everyday life.
“When we do yoga, we are able to peel away the layers of protection we’ve built around our hearts and become more open to receiving and giving compassion and kindness to others,” she said. “Yoga helps people of all ages to become less reactive and to self-regulate. Over time, it can help us see and appreciate our bodies and take care of ourselves in a way we may not have previously.”
Spencer believes that yoga allows individuals to see their own minds for what they are, chaotic, and noisy most of the time.
“When we step on our mats and enter the space of yoga, we find that the mind quiets and stills and we find tranquility that can last long after we step off our mats,” Spencer added. “I’ve learned to make peace with myself and who I am, and what I’m meant to do with my life,through yoga. And it’s not just doing poses and stretching. It’s an eight-limbed system that covers all aspects of our mental and physical well-being.”
When Spencer was around age six, she lived on a farm in Maryland for a few years, and as an only child with no others living nearby, she connected with the animals and gained their trust by moving her body the same way they moved theirs. The animals naturally began to allow her into their lives, and by moving her body in so many ways, Spencer experienced the practice of yoga without even knowing it. She would sit in quiet stillness, observing the animals for hours on end, just to notice their behavioral patterns so she could gain their trust. At the time, she had no idea she was practicing Metacognition, defined as thinking about one’s own thinking. Later that term came to mean mindfulness.
After she grew up and became pregnant with her first child, she wanted to find ways she could exercise safely, and a Kathy Ireland video initially prompted her to try yoga. Not only did yoga and meditation calm her nervous system, it made her realize she was feeding her body as well as her baby.
“The practice of yoga makes students more aware of the subtleties of their minds and bodies, putting them in touch with what is needed to thrive and stay healthy, both emotionally and physically.
“Once I became a mom, I did what felt natural to me as an elementary school teacher, which meant using the energy and healing facets of yoga into baby massage and post-natal stretching,” added Spencer. “From the very beginning of life, touch is so important, and the self-soothing nature of yoga and communicating through gentle touch is an essential healing factor. I could feel the love pumping through my hands to my kids.”
Spencer has created the Peaceful Minds Curriculum, an entire program based on her work for yoga students. As a professional developer and mindful-based instructional coach for schools, businesses, yoga studios, recreational facilities, senior centers, as well as volunteer work in prisons and rehabilitation facilities, her curriculum is now taught across the Denver metro area as well as in Washington, California, and Florida.
“Teaching kids to take conscious breaths, do chair exercises, and think deeply helps them experience the clear awareness of being a human being, something you don’t see so much in our current test-taking culture,” said Spencer. “Through my work with young students, I’ve developed a children’s yoga manual that I send home with their parents, to help them incorporate movement into their daily lives. The benefit is self-acceptance, which is the ultimate human goal, rather than happiness. And learning to live in the present moment is something we can do every day without judging ourselves.”
Creating Space for Yourself
People of all ages can easily get involved in a regular yoga practice. The important thing to do is find a class or a studio, and show up. There are many online resources that can help.
“Going to a yoga class lets you be a part of something bigger than yourself, and it’s worth experimenting with different ones until you find what works for you,” said Spencer. “It helps to participate when there are others around because it creates a special social connection in a safe environment where people feel less alone.”
Spencer adds that finding a good yoga studio is like finding a home, and once that’s happened, individuals can start making healthful intentions in a safe space.
“Intentions are something that you set in present time, where you create a statement from deep within yourself that may help let go of some things you’d been holding back,” said Spencer. “Intention setting is a learned practice, and while it can feel superficial at first, it soon becomes natural, and along with breathing exercises, you can find yourself immersed in a peaceful awareness of the present.” Peaceful World Yoga not only includes a Peaceful Minds Curriculum, but also a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, a 300-hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training, a Certified Children’s Yoga Teacher Training, after-school yoga enrichment programs, yoga and mindfulness workshops, and private cognitive/yoga/mindfulness sessions for individual groups.
For more information about those and how to tailor a program in your place of business, visit Peaceful World Yoga.
