Using Them to Help us Practice as Mature Moms

I’ve been doing yoga for about 15 year or so. I started out watching videos (shout out to Yoga with Adrienne). Based on what I learned from videos and books, I started developing my own morning routine that I’ve been pretty religious about this past year, more than ever. My time is now my own much more as a mature mom whose kids are off with their own lives. So making the home my own and practicing self-care has been really important to me. (see my post on ways to feel better alone, and when kids head back to college for wonderful ideas for practicing self-care!)

Making a space for my yoga practice (see how I did it here!) has made it so much easier to stick to a regular schedule- knowing the space is dedicated to me and my time is a wonderful incentive to get onto the mat.

I struggle with an autoimmune issue that is showing its ugly head increasingly in the past few years. This affects balance and strength, two things that yoga targets and helps improve. Even if you don’t have any ailments that affect these things, aging and how it shows up in the body is enough to at least try yoga. Flexibility is something really important for healthy aging, and yoga is all about that.

Props are great to incorporate into your practice to help, especially when it comes to flexibility. If you cannot touch the ground in a pose, you can use a block or bolster to help out. A block is what it sounds like, a rectangular piece of wood or foam that is sturdy and can support poses where you need to use full body weight. Although just a simple brick, you can adjust the height you need in four ways: vertically, horizontally, on the flat side or on the edge. A bolster, on the other hand, is a larger, soft cushion, like a hard pillow. It is wonderful for meditation, gentle yin poses, and resting poses like sivasana. 

Here are some ways I use the props to help in my practice.

Child’s Pose. This is one of my favorites and I do it every day. They say the grounding nature of this pose helps with anxiety and agitation. Since it’s important to bring your head to the ground to experience the affects of this pose, if you are limited in flexibility and are unable to do that, props are perfect. Here I use a block in one photo and a bolster in the other.

Seated wide legged pose. I’ve found that opening your legs into a ‘split’ gets ever-harder as the years go by. But hip flexibility is so important in walking and balance, so working on this area of the body is key to easier walking. I like a bolster in front of me for this one. Since it’s bigger and higher than a block, I can lean forward onto it, holding the position and getting a deeper stretch. This, and similar poses, is a position often done in a yin yoga practice, where poses are held for several minutes. So I would really recommend pulling out a bolster if you’re taking a class specific to yin.

Bridge. I love this pose. It is wonderful for hips, back and butt strengthening. When I went to a physical therapist for back and hip issues, this was on my exercise list. So it’s part of my regular routine for sure. On your back, hip distance apart, just raise your hips up as high as you can and hold for ten breaths. I am able to do this without a block, but using the block does give you some extra height and stretch. To use it, just place it under your hips. Here I’m using the flat part of the block, but it you need even more stretch, you could try placing it on the edge.

Triangle. Because of my balance issues, I have always found this pose intimidating. Pivoting to the side, keeping legs straight and reaching down to the floor? It’s not easy. It’s one of the poses I’ve been using a block for years. I notice many people who don’t even use blocks regularly, use them for this pose. It gives you such great stability! My left arm didn’t make it to the photo, sorry! It’s stretched up to the ceiling, and doing this 100% correctly, you would set your gaze up toward your outstretched arm.

Standing wide legged forward fold. This pose gives your spine some love, and we all need that. I find a real advantage to using the block for this. With the extra stability you can be a little braver and keep your legs farther apart, hence getting a much better stretch. I have it on the edge vertically here.

Savasana. “Corpse pose” is wonderful at the end of a good yoga session. Eyes closed, relaxing music, maybe a blanket. In some classes, the instructor comes around and puts a drop of essential oil on your forehead. Yum. Instructors will often encourage the use of a bolster. These are two poses I’ve used during this ever-important element of my yoga session.

I love this health and wellness stuff, and hope to launch a YouTube channel, Healthy Aging with Nora Z one day! It would be very exciting to have a community where we shared yoga routines for older bodies. Also healthy meal planning and eating, meditation and journaling tips, effortless entertaining and decorating…there are so many topics for us mature ladies to explore!

With more time for ourselves, we can focus on self-care; making our homes, bodies, minds and spirits peaceful, loving and happy. That’s the goal!