It is so relaxing after a yoga class but I could never explain why. Sometimes I was quite emotional at the end of the class and I felt so weird. After I become a yoga teacher, I still find it hard to articulate in words how yoga connects body and mind. I can feel the cause and effect but I am not able to put it in words. Recently, I come across the effect of yoga/mindfulness while studying a counseling unit in occupational therapy course. It is great to see yoga/ mindfulness becomes an evidence-based tool for physical and mental exhaustion, anxiety and depression. Research on the effectiveness of yoga/mindfulness to manage mental health is emerging.
 
Connect to body
First, let me explain how yoga connects to body. Yoga stretches out the muscles and enhance relaxation in the musculoskeletal system. For example, we sit long hours everyday. Hip flexor is tight and muscles are shortening. Lunge pose helps extend hip flexor and lengthen the muscles in this muscle group. This reduces stiffness, tightness and enhances relaxation. We start noticing muscular tension or cohesion in yoga movement. For example, many yoga students experience tightness in hamstrings, or discover legs and arms coordination.
​
 
Connect to mind through body awareness
Then, it comes to connect to the mind through body awareness. This refers to body relations to different parts of the body (left and right, front and back, top and bottom) and body relations to the environment (gravity and anti-gravity). For example, in downward facing dog, your palms and feet give you sensory feedback to adjust and fine-tune the body posture. If your wrist is tiring, you press down the fingers onto the mat to distribute the body weight. Your wrists then feel better. Body awareness is essential for body and mind connection. In many yoga postures, it requires your awareness of anatomic alignment of pelvis, spine and trunk to hold the posture. These holding postures require your self-discipline, concentration and motivation.
 
Body-mind connection
Once you walk through the first few sessions (a bit of struggle) alive, you start feeling the flow of inner energy awareness of the yoga movement. This allows you to understand yourself and your experiences. The continuous self-adjustments create a pattern and help you respond to certain situations on the mat as well as off the mat. For example, in a difficult situation, breath…...Body-mind connection is important because our mind have unlimited thoughts and feelings. We constantly want to do a lot. However, our body is muscles and bones. We can only do that much at a time. We need to find the balance. Pace yourself.  
 
Mindfulness
Practicing yoga requires you to concentrate, stay at the present and let go of other thoughts in order to hold the posture. Yoga is one of the mindfulness practices. Mindfulness refers to watching your current emotions and body sensations without judgment. This self-regulation ability allows us not to think about the past (rumination) and the future (worries). Yoga/mindfulness improve our personal resources by directing attention to reduce negativity and draining activity. Instead, we can improve our cognitive resources for daily tasks.
 
Yoga is a psychological process, from body sensation to body awareness to self and environment, from body awareness to self-understanding, from self-understanding to non-judgmental. The ultimate goal is to experience inner peace and inner strength.

Scoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine), osteoarthritis (wear and tear of the joints) or degenerative disc disease (ageing process leading to rupture) are associated with low back pain. Surprisingly, many causes of low back pain are non-specific. That can be quite annoying. You may be standing in pain, sitting in pain laying flat in pain for no reason. It is frustrating as you are no longer able to concentrate on work or study. You need to keep adjusting your position so as to reduce the discomfort.

Daniel Lieberman thinks non-specific lower back pain is caused by hours of sitting in modern lifestyle. Even I am a yoga teacher, I can’t avoid long hours of sitting when studying anatomy in my occupational therapy course. With prolonged chair rest, we do not need to use our muscles to support body weight. This weakens core muscles of the back and abdomen. In addition, many hours of sitting mean bending hips for many hours. With the shortened hip flexors, we overarch our back to compensate while standing and walking. Regular stretching and strengthening back muscles are important to our back health.
 
I’ve read a research article about the effect of occupational therapy and yoga in non-specific lower back pain. Occupational therapy intervention includes sleeping position for back health, postural training of sitting, standing and lifting and core strengthening exercise. After 10 week of training, it shows that people with non-specific low back pain indicate improvements in back strength and range of motion of the spine, with the combination of occupational therapy and yoga. Here are a few yoga poses shown for lower back pain.

1. Reclining hand-to-big toe pose ​

Tips: It changes the pelvic tilt when lifting one leg up towards the ceiling. Keep your spine in neutral position. Ideally, lower back touches the mat and chin to chest. So, it doesn’t hyperextend the lower back and the neck.
Benefits: Reposition the lower back for a better alignment to relieve back muscles tension

2. Extended triangle pose 
​
Tips:
​ - Externally rotate the left thigh muscles when you take your left hand towards the left foot. Activate your legs.
 - Open up the right shoulder to deepen the side body stretch
Benefits:
 - Strengthen the thighs muscles to carry upper body weight or lift a heavy object
 - Strengthen the abdomen to support the muscles surrounding the lower back
 - Stretch the side body to relieve lower back pain (stretching the muscle attached to lumbar spine)

3. Bridge pose 

​Half moon pose
How about half moon pose? It’s one leg on the ground and torso is held horizontally. We still need to find the center of gravity and how it falls to one leg. In this case, When standing on right leg, we need to rotate the left hip. Opening up the left side of the body allows the center of gravity falls within the right hip, right leg and right foot.

In some cases, we are worried about falling over rather than poor balance. You may find it easier to balance next to the wall even you are not actually touching the wall. Practicing balance pose also helps us learn how to manage fear and stay focused. Both yoga for grownups and chair yoga for seniors involve balance poses in each class.
 
 Do you have good balance? Is balance exercise in your regular workout routine? If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
 ​

From moving around on all fours to standing upright, human evolution allows us to free our hands to make and use tools. Standing and walking upright also keep us cool as only head and shoulders get exposed to direct solar radiation, rather than the entire back and neck. However, there are a few downsides of human evolution causing body pain.
 
When our hominid ancestors still moved around on all fours, the feet ad hands were absorbing force. Pressure created by gravity was more evenly distributed along the spine. 4 million years ago, when we started walking upright, our spine gradually lengthened and became more S-shape in order to balance our torso over our hips and feet. Standing upright and having a curved spine increase stress on certain points of the column, such as back pain and neck pain.

When we know which part of the body gets stressed, we can choose yoga poses that will de-stress it afterward. 3 chair yoga poses strives to balance opposing parts of the physical body along the spine, the front and back, the left and right. It is essential to keep our bodies pain-free and function properly.
 
1. Forward bend
Directions: Place four corners of the feet on the ground. As you Inhale, lengthen the spine; as you exhale, bend forward. Slowly walk your hands towards the shin or ankles. Feel the weight of the head.
 
Why?
By hanging your head upside down and bend forward, you take the pressure of gravity off your spine, increase the space between the vertebras, taking pressure off nerves and relieving pain.
 
2. Backbend
Directions: interlace the fingers and place your hands behind the head for gentle support. As you inhale, lengthen the spine; as you exhale, present the heart to the sky. Bring your awareness to the upper back, rather than the lower back.

I am always impressed with an 80-year-old who is able to squat down, bounce up, and so on. After a busy period of working and raising children, older adults have freedom to do what they feel like. It is kind of a rebirth, or successful aging. Isn’t it?
What does successful aging mean? It refers to the transition from middle age to older age, with a low risk of disease, high functional level and participating in social activities. Because of my job nature, I meet many happy and healthy seniors. That doesn’t mean they all can squat down and bounce up, without any physical issues. In fact, many of them have different level of pain from arthritis, hip/knee replacements, etc. However, they have an accepting attitude toward physical decline but learn to cope well with it. Isn’t it still a successful aging?
When we are driving, reading, watching TV, only forward-facing movement is required. The side, back and lower part of the body get neglected, which causes muscle strains, torn ligaments and stressed joints. The following yoga poses help stretch different parts of the body and relieve physical pain. 
1. Dancing warrior
Direction: Open right hip, extend the left leg and find the heel-to-heel alignment. Bring your left palm on the left thigh and raise the right arm up overhead. Repeat the other side.
Benefits: This pose helps lengthen the muscles between the ribs and pelvis, including parts of the lower back. When stretching the arm overhead, we can also stretch the upper back and upper arm.

Chair yoga makes yoga accessible to seniors. While you are seated on the chair, you are able to stretch every part of the body. If you are a bit of uncertain what you can do, this seniors exercise class in Bassendean or Vic Park organized by Connect Victoria Park is a good starting point. 
Have you tried chair yoga before? How did you go? Leave me a comment below.