91-Year-Old Yogi: Why Would I Ever Stop Doing Yoga?
91-year-old yogi, Bernice Bates, began practicing and teaching yoga in 1960. Before even getting out of bed in the morning she does a series of seven or so poses to get her blood flowing -- how awesome is that?Bernice tells MSNBC that she credits yoga with keeping her healthy and flexible:
"I think yoga is the best exercise there is. I've never had anything I had to go to the doctor for, except checkups. That should say something."
She says that yoga makes for the perfect mind-body connection:
"You’re not just standing on a treadmill and going, going, going and you get off and can hardly walk. Yoga itself means yoke, that’s to join. We join our mind, our body and our spirit in everything we do. Yoga gives you flexibility like you’ve never had before, and it makes you healthy because you’re working on the whole body, inside and out."
Back to Bates' teaching -- she now leads a one-hour class in a retirement center for adults in their 60s to 80s!
"We go over our whole body and tense each part, then we relax. It’s for everybody. There’s thousands of postures. You can pick and choose. You do what you can. It’s non-competitive, which is the best thing about it."
When asked when she would stop teaching, Bates replied, "Why should I quit? As long as I can do it and help someone else, I'll just stay as long as I can. I get a joy out of seeing someone learning."
Namaste to that!
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