Yoga & You - Partners in Health
I have long known that if I don’t enter a task in my calendar, it’s bound to NOT happen, it’ll be forgotten for sure. When I held a full time job, went to Sanskrit school, and taught yoga all at once, I ascribed my forgetfulness to just being overwhelmed. Then, since we all have our private fears, my rising chronological age brought on a concern that down the line I may begin a slow slide into cognitive decline.
Dementia is not in my gene pool but still - with so much talk about cognitive decline going on in the news, I was sucked into the worry. I like to be prepared and I wanted to know what more I could do to stave off any future decline.
Now a new neurological study came out putting me more at ease. The study, presented at the 2022 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in San Diego, followed 296 participants who were completely sedentary at the beginning of the experiment, for 12 months.
The study confirmed two important points: 1) even a modest amount of exercise - 2 to 2.5 hours per week - may slow cognitive decline in sedentary older adults; 2) the exercise does NOT have to be cardio-based (this was the previously entrenched view) - even gentle yoga and basic stretching deliver this slowing down effect on cognitive decline.
So, what have we learned from all these recent studies?
The more we move and exercise, the better our health will be.
Even if we don’t have the time to exercise 1+ hour every day,
just 20 minutes of yoga stretches per day will keep us vibrant and thriving.
As yogis and yoginis, our thirst and need for a healthy mind and body are indelibly impressed in our psyche. I personally use yogic tools every day - in my car while driving (meditating), in my daily encounters with people (zen, inner peace, awareness, mindfulness), and on my mat. I'm wishing you the same, with your days full of movement (asana), contentment (santosha), health (ahimsa), and zest for life and all it has to offer (svadhyaya).
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