Yoga no longer has this somewhat outdated image of an exotic activity practiced by cool babes who have never come back down from a trip to Kathmandu in the 1970s, fortunately. On the contrary, the practice of yoga has developed with various audiences for various motivations but always in a search for "well-being". Are the results there?
After a lifetime of work, the body is no longer as toned as it was at 20, it has sometimes suffered or been neglected. Once retirement has arrived, finally comes the time to turn inward, to escape the tensions of current life in order to find respite from the daily tumult in which we tend to get carried away.
In order not to violate his body while maintaining it, a senior will turn to gentler activities such as Nordic walking, hiking, for example, and then to physical practices that combine a spiritual dimension, such as qi gong , tai-chi-chuan, meditation or, of course, yoga.
This technique of the body that is yoga allows a possible revelation of oneself, that is to say to regain flesh in one's existence, to feel the world through the body, to become aware of one's environment, of one's own existence, outside of materialism. , speed, performance obligation imposed by society. This practice shared with others corresponds to a commitment, it involves those who exercise it, it is not isolation in a bubble but an "active wisdom" which perfectly suits seniors.
With yoga, you get away from the worries of everyday life during the practice, to offer yourself a dive into yourself allowing you to discover your body in another light, and to gradually erase the ailments linked to the lack of exercise, through the mobilization of hitherto unknown resources. An alchemy between movement and contemplation, effort and thought, attention to exercises and interiority, occurs:the search for an intensity of being and physical relationship to the world echoes the immobilization growing body.
Physical performance does not correspond to the principles of yoga, it is never a question of hurting yourself but of listening to your body. The yoga posture on the head, Sirsasana , will not be acquired overnight, and that is not the goal. Maybe you will never succeed, it does not matter at all because it is not this work on the body that is sought after.
Yoga, through work on the body and associated breathing techniques, gradually transforms the relationship to the world. Life is not just a path strewn with rose petals, or else, pitfalls are encountered there, and when we face these delicate periods which can be retirement or illness for example, yoga helps to find room for a new beginning, the creation of an envelope of meaning around oneself. It's a way of working on yourself that goes through the person as a whole.
Taken from its spiritual angle, yoga does not replace the sometimes necessary recourse to psychotherapy, but it is a beneficial complementary practice.
If the development of yoga classes that are flourishing more and more can sometimes give rise to fears that the cult of the body highlighted in yoga postures leaves little room for spirituality, this does not seem real for seniors. The spiritual dimension is important when you have completed your professional career and are beginning the last part of your life.
Whether one is a believer - whatever the religion - agnostic or atheist, the spirituality towards which one walks with yoga does not come into contradiction. It is rather akin to a "letting go" intended to refocus on "the essential", without there being any question of a God. We can speak of a free and open "secular" spirituality, outside dogmas of all kinds (religious but also political, economic, etc.). The spirituality born of yoga that connects to oneself, to others and to the world, responds to the divisions that our humanity knows...
In all this, the practice of yoga can only be beneficial. Whether you are practicing non-practitioners or not, whether the rich and complex history of the different yogas, intertwined in the links between cultures, religions and political powers, interests you, the book Yoga The Encyclopedia * under the direction of Ysé Tardan-Masquelier will offer you the opportunity to understand the attraction of yoga, in India, in France and on all continents. With specialists from all over the world, Indianists, philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, yoga teachers, the book accessible while being scholarly offers an exciting popularization around textual sources, body practices, philosophical backgrounds, courses of high personalities in color…
* Editions Albin Michel – 720 pages – October 14, 2021 – €39
