Tom McClintock

by Harriet Alterowitz

How would it feel to have better sleep, smoother breathing, a less sluggish body and a general feeling of well-being? Recent research on yoga and meditation among our older population continues to be promising in proving that with a few simple additions to our daily routines we can become more vital, more energetic, and also bring a sense of calmness and contentment to the mind.

The research is revealing that yoga and meditation don’t just help us relax or keep us flexible; these practices also influence memory, lifespan, and immunity. Yoga influences the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system (calms/steadies) and reduces activity in the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight/freeze). This means that when we practice yoga and meditation we experience a reduction in the stress hormone, cortisol. The result: yoga and meditation can create change at a molecular level in the cells of our bodies!

In addition, regardless of age, the essential element is how often you practice and not how seasoned you are. Even more good news is that it’s never too late to get started and start reaping the benefits!

Before I started practicing yoga, I worked as a Personal Trainer at The Women’s Club Fitness Center in Missoula, MT. In my mid-forties I noticed that my otherwise strong body was beginning to develop ever more frequent strains and sprains. As a dancer, I’m intimately familiar with discomfort, especially after a hard workout. But this was different. To my uneducated mind, the best solution seemed to be to work harder, stretch deeper, keep going and “push through” the discomfort. Wrong decision! Really, really wrong!!!

“Don’t believe everything you think.”

– Robert Fulgham

When that ill-informed decision made things worse, I decided to take a yoga class. My mind was so busy that I could hardly focus on the teacher’s words! Since the movement was slow, it gave my mind all the space it needed to reflect on the past and peer into (or overthink) the future. At that point in my life, I had no conception of “mindfulness” or “centering.” I just liked to move my body.

Fast forward ten years and I’ve fallen in love with yoga. I can’t wait to learn more—to attended seminars, workshops, teacher trainings, all sorts of programs to deepen my love and knowledge of this transformational practice. I have become a lifetime student of yoga and, better yet, I’m also in a position to teach others; to lead people on the path of staying healthy in body and mind and to tailor the practice to the aging process. All of us are aging; I’m in my 70’s now! All of us are facing the life changes and challenges that are a part of the process.

“Trust yourself first.”

– Judith Hansen Lasater

As we age our joints become stiffer. We lose muscle mass and function. Our nervous system slows. Yoga for Healthy Aging moves the joints and exercises the muscles in a mindful and healthful way. We learn techniques to stabilize the breath and regulate the nervous system. We learn to quiet the critical thoughts and welcome self-supporting, progressive relaxation.

Here are some things I’ve heard about yoga:

• I could never do THAT!
• I’m too fat.
• I’m too busy.
• I’m not flexible enough.
• I’m not strong enough.
• My balance is terrible.
• I’m afraid I’ll hurt myself.
• And many, many more.

And here are some things research into the benefits of yoga has shown and which I believe:

• Yoga offers tremendous benefit to our aging population.
• Yoga is for (almost) everyone of every age and body size, when done with appropriate modifications and props.
• Yoga changes the brain so that we become less fearful and anxious and more relaxed and confident.
• Yoga makes us stronger in both body and in spirit.
• And many, many more.

Yoga for Healthy Aging classes teach traditional yoga movements in sequences with instruction given at multiple levels. You pick the level to practice. You always have the option to do less or more. This practice tones the body without pressure or competition. It’s your practice at your level. Will everyone find the same love of yoga that I have? Maybe not. Will everyone reap the same benefits and is everyone physically capable of practicing yoga? No. But the vast majority of people, when provided with careful, informed instruction, can practice a form of yoga at any age and at almost any level of physical ability. Of course, the practice of yoga, like our bodies and minds, will change as we age. Mine certainly has. But I invite you to see the positive changes it the former can bring about in the latter.

 

– Arwen Kittelson-Aldred (www.arweniansoundscapes.com)

Lately, I have been hearing more and more theories about the potential of intentionally used sound to support people. While there is some interesting research out there on the efficacy of sound, there are many more fascinating stories from sound workers and their clients on the ways that sound has transformed their experience of life, which I can relate to. When I was 7, I began to study piano, and it quickly became my escape when life felt unsafe. That set the trend of music being my safe space, which basically translates to music being a tool that I used (and use) to calm my nervous system.

And there’s a lot of evidence that shows I’m not alone in that! Decades after my relationship with the piano began, as a teacher for elementary school kids on the autism spectrum, it was fascinating to see what types of sounds helped them relax and self-regulate when they were struggling. One girl would hum Rihanna’s “Disturbia,” another calmed down to “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga, and one of my students was the most engaged when we would sing to each other as if we were in a 2-person opera. Others would play with Bjork’s Biophilia App, arranging and rearranging sound patterns, if they were allowed to.

I spend a lot of my life engaging with sound. Recently, I have been creating soundscapes with my gongs, singing bowls, tank drums, and other instruments. It is fascinating to observe the changes that happen in myself and my clients over the course of a sound meditation, as we tune into the soundscape.

All of us live in a constantly changing soundscape, regardless of if we are consciously aware of it or not. Electricity, traffic, fans, the far-off hum of airplanes… these sounds are just a normal part of our existence, something that we often don’t notice until it isn’t there. Turning our focus to sound, deeply listening to the sounds that surround us, be they pleasant or displeasing, is a form of meditation that can be easier to access for some folks than traditional silent meditation.

When my anxiety spikes and I can feel my nervous system moving into fight or flight mode, I often turn to sound to bring myself back down to center. At times I go into my music room and play, sometimes I turn on music that feels soothing to me. Other times I focus on the sound of my breath, and then my awareness naturally expands out to the soundscape around me.

A question that I often get is: does sound have healing properties or will playing specific frequencies or notes have a profound effect? The answer is a definite “maybe.” Everyone has their own experience, and a note or frequency that feels transformative for one person may not have any impact on another. What I do know, from my personal experience and observation, is that sound can help our bodies to calm, and our nervous systems to downregulate. The specifics of what sounds produce that result vary from person to person but putting our focus on the sounds that we have sought out can soothe our nervous systems and help us self-regulate.

So, consider adding sound meditation to your personal toolbox! I teach Sound & Meditation classes at Red Willow periodically and use a variety of instruments at each class to create a soundscape that is designed to be restful and peaceful. There are also free sound meditations available on YouTube and through the Insight Timer app. Experiment and start to notice which sounds are soothing to you and your nervous systems, and which are not. The beauty of using sound is that there is such an enormous variety available, and more than likely there will be something that works for you… it’s just a matter of finding it.

by Tom Camel

I chopped weeds yesterday. As I moved while chopping, I tried to balance the amount of effort in my movements—left and right, up and down, side to side. I tried to loosen all the muscles I had tightened with one movement and shift that effort to the muscles on the other side. I tried to pay attention to my feelings of balance so as not to be totally in one part of my body. Moving my energy back and forth, I was mindful.

I also wanted smoothness and flow as I shifted my attention back and forth from being mainly within in my body and out in the world around me. I took time to come to a stop, to let go of muscle tension that was not needed, to sense my body fatigue, and to use that information on my decision to change what I was doing and how I am doing it. It is helpful to have an awareness of excessive tightness in your muscles and awareness of muscles that are working too much or muscles that don’t need to be working now. Awareness of a sense of direction in parts of my body as well as the whole body helps me stay balanced.

I learned all this in the Mindful Movement class. I learned (and continue to learn) to have a relationship with my mind and body that’s kinder and more respectful. The education and mindful movement practice helps me find more ease and less pain and I use the activities, education and awareness to find my whole self over and over again. With Mindful Movement, there is an unlimited amount of movement I can have, there’s always ebb and flow happening. The class helps me move in ways that move away from tenseness and pain. I have even learned how to better be in stillness. At the end of the class we lie down and come to quiet. Sometimes when Mari says something about the class that we just experienced, she says it in a way that pulls the activities together in a way that sounds like poetry.  She asks us to visualize animals and how they move.  It’s like the Native American Medicine Wheel.  The Eagle is vision and perspective the wolf is courage and fierceness when necessary to protect ourselves.  Imagining these animals and being like them helps me.

As a veteran with an artificial leg, I find ways to move that uses my inner awareness to find balance that is in a different place than if I had two legs. I don’t have to wear my artificial leg to benefit from the Mindful Movement class.

The ways of Mindful Movement gradually soften my body and moves it away from holding and tightening and the principals of balance and wholeness reminds me of Native American ways of the Medicine Wheel. I have learned about being kind to my body and how to have more freedom. I have learned I can do much so more with much less effort using these practices.

 

by Christine Lustik, PhD

Mindfulness has become a do it all drug. Could it really help support those living with PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a response to trauma that can cause a person to relive the event and cause the brain to change in certain ways. Most notably, the amygdala gets stuck in high alert and at the same time, the hippocampus, which is trying to make sense of things for us, connects the current event to the previous traumatic event to warn us and keep us on alert. The brain often makes this connection through a sound or some other sensory clue. This causes high anxiety and exhaustion to occur, among many other possible outcomes.

Now, let’s look at mindfulness. First let’s remember, the goal of mindfulness practice is to bring us back to the present moment. This is most often practiced through mindfulness meditation. This is helpful when done carefully as it can help those with PTSD return from the memory arising of the past event before getting stuck in that memory. In addition, regular mindfulness practice is shown to increase activity in the pre-frontal cortex and decrease reactivity in the amygdala, both of these counteract the effects of the PTSD. This all sounds positive and when applied can help those with PTSD interrupt the brain when it’s remembering the traumatic event as if the event is happening in real time. The more we interrupt and redirect the brain, the more it’s able to create a different neural pathway for those situations.

In 2015 and 2021, systemic reviews of the research to date on PTSD and mindfulness were completed. These reviews determined that there are a lot of promising results, but there is more work to be done. It was determined that we need to study if there are specific types of trauma that respond more positively to mindfulness and also which forms of mindfulness are most effective for PTSD.

So yes, mindfulness practice can support those with PTSD. That said, for mindfulness practice to be effective, it takes regular and dedicated practice to begin building new neural pathways. In addition, researchers have yet to understand fully why some people develop PTSD after a traumatic event, while others don’t, and what triggers traumatic events. Therefore, it is suggested individuals with PTSD work with programs and guides that are trauma-informed to be as safe as possible.