Angela
In your sixties, you’re on a cusp. You start con-
fronting your mortality and thinking, “What will
happen to me ten years from now?” Your bones
get weaker; there are balance and flexibility
issues. I see hunched-over older people on the
street and think, “I do not want to look like that.”
I don’t want to be afraid to go outside because I
might fall on a crack in the sidewalk.
My whole life, I exercised off and on—more
off than on. I had fitness equipment in my tiny
apartment. I went to gyms. But I was very unmo-
tivated, even though I knew that exercise should
be a priority. I would say, “Nah, I don’t feel like it
today. I’m too tired.”
Eventually, though, I could no longer deny
that I needed to boost my strength to fend off all
of those horrible things older people fear.
I’d always had the idea that yoga was for
twenty- or thirtysomething women. I didn’t think
it was for me. But after I started going to senior
centers to pursue other interests, like opera, I
noticed that most of these places teach some
form of yoga. Also, I have a childhood friend
exactly my age who has been doing yoga all her
life, and I see how she looks; I see how she feels. I
really had to say to myself, “What are you waiting
for? What excuse do you have?”
I have to say, far from dreading yoga, I look
forward to it. I go three or four times a week and
am disappointed if for some reason I can’t get to
class. I really enjoy the positions and the stretch-
ing. At the end of a class I feel better than I did
when I started, so of course I want to do it again.
My classes also have become a community
of other older women, some of whom I have
befriended. Yoga is joyful.
Older people can do yoga. It can be done. It’s
never too late, seriously. It is really never too late.TABLETOP POSE