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november/december 2017yogajournal.com.auInsiya Rasiwala-Finnis a
yogi, writer and mama who
calls Planet Earth her home.
Originally from Bombay,
India, Insiya grew up with
Yoga and Ayurveda and is
passionate about sharing
these ageless wisdom
traditions with our modern world. You can
learn more about her at http://www.yogue.ca.
Join her on retreat to Goa, India, in January.
Details here:www.yogue.ca/calendar/
surya-samudra-a-yoga-retreat-to-india-with-
insiya-eoin-finn/conflict with someone at work. Time
slows down and each moment feels rich,
full and alive.
In Ayurvedic terms, this is when we
shift from the space of rajas, the frenetic
and reactive state that informs much
of our day, towards more sattva or
calm. Modern science concurs,
describing this as a change in the
nervous system’s state of fight or flight,
to that of rest and digest.
When we learn how to react to
challenging situations without getting
stressed (something we practice on our
mats through physical asana) we begin
to re-pattern our body’s stress response.
Less stress allows our body to focus on
rebuilding and regenerating itself at the
cellular level, vs. working to block
stressors from impacting us. This
catalyses our body’s innate anti-ageing
mechanisms at the hormonal level —
when we are less stressed we produce
less cortisol (aka the stress hormone),
which ups the ratio of DHEA or the
anti-ageing hormone.
We also receive anti-ageing benefits
at the level of our genes. Each of our
cells includes structures called
telomeres, bits of DNA at the end of
chromosomes that get shorter each time
cells divide. As we age, telomeres get
shorter and shorter. When telomeres get
too short, the cells can no longer divide
and they die. Yoga, say recent studies,
may help to preserve their length,
helping us to slow down the ageing
process as we slow down our breath.
I saw an old college friend last week
after 18 years. We looked at one another
and both exclaimed, “You look the
same.” Perhaps we do. Yet what was
more important to me, was that though
our 40-year-old lives may be different
from those of our 21-year-old selves,
when we said goodbye, I was left with
the same feeling of optimism, possibility
and connection that I had experienced
years ago. And that to me is what age
is about. It is how we choose to feel in
this particular moment in this lifetime.
If my yoga practice can offer me the
pause to be present and choose,
without being restrained by societal
constructs, I know that I can enjoy
whatever age I happen to be, fully,
without reservation.10 RITUALS TO
EMBRACE YOUR AGELive in rhythm with nature,
not against her
This is Ayurveda’s most profound
teaching. Very simply put — awake
early when it is light and sleep when
it is dark. This allows your anti-ageing
hormones to follow their natural
diurnal cycles and offers your body
the benefits of deep sleep, which is the
most regenerative tool in our arsenal
of living well.Invite abundance through
gratitude
Start your days and end your days
recounting three things you are grateful
for. Do this consistently. When we live
life through the lens of abundance, not
lack, we bring more joy and less stress
into our lives.Eat lightly at night
As we grow older, our metabolism does
slow down. Eating a lighter meal in the
evenings offers our body the time to
digest food more fully, thereby offering
us the full benefits of its nutrition. This
also helps our body to repair itself at the
cellular level when we sleep (as our
bodies can focus on their rejuvenation
tasks vs. digesting heavy food).Learn from the ages
Embrace friends who are both younger
and older than you. We grow as a
species through sharing human insights
and experiences and we stay young
when we learn something new from
those who have life experiences that are
vastly different than us.Meditate or do yoga for
even 10 minutes a day
Ten to 20 minutes is what your body
needs to drop into the rest and digest
state and consistent practice will allow
you to get there even sooner.Move every day
Movement fills our bodies with joy. We
are not meant to sit for hours as we do
today. So honour your body’s natural
ability to embrace joy and fill up that cup.Find freedom in constraints
Each life stage offers us new challenges
and it us up to us to discover their benefits. Laugh a lot
Laughter is a natural de-stressor and
fills our bodies with endorphins. Wear
your laugh lines proudly. Don’t mask yourself
Instead, allow yourself to reveal yourself
more fully to those you love. Women
tend to cover up their imagined flaws
through make-up. What if you
approached using make-up simply as a
way to enhance your natural beauty and
not mask it? Eat more plants and good fats
A diet high in whole plant foods
supports telomere preservation. Good
fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, flax
and primrose oil also help us to
maintain moisture in our bodies,
something we lose as we age.“If my yoga practice can
offer me the pause to be
present and choose, without
being restrained by societal
constructs, I know that
I can enjoy whatever age
I happen to be, fully,
without reservation.”