Yoga and Breath to Increase Quality of Life

In yoga, we call the breath “prana,” which means life force energy. What better way to increase our quality of life than by generating life force energy! That is exactly what we are doing while practicing yoga with our geriatric and/or disabled populations. When we focus on the breath, we are also enhancing our thought process by generating blood flow and oxygen to the brain and all parts of the body.

Some of the other benefits of yoga are decreased anxiety and depression, an increase in core strength, which helps with the prevention of falls, and increased respiratory function.

Decreased Anxiety and Depression: Physical exercise increases serotonin in the brain, which increases mood and good feelings. While engaged in a yoga class, you are also focusing on yourself and encouraged to forget about the outside world. The teacher is giving positive affirmations and encouragement during the class, which helps to engage the student in mindfulness.

Increase Core Strength: By moving through the yoga poses, you are generating muscle tone around the spine and body. While in yoga, you are encouraged to sit up and maintain good posture, which increases muscle memory in the core areas of the body. This muscle tone and posture are what will help to keep you from falling. Or, if you do fall, these muscles will make it easier to get up.

Increase in Respiratory Function: Yoga is breath! While in a yoga class, the teacher will talk to you, demonstrate to you and encourage you to breathe deep and exhale long throughout the class. These breathing techniques have proven to increase lung capacity as well as assist in clearing the stagnant air from the lungs, which could become mucus if not cleared.

These are only a few of the key benefits of yoga. Yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years and has been helping people to increase and create a healthy lifestyle. When we talk about “Quality of Life,” we are talking about making our years count, feeling good in this life, having fun in our day-to-day activities, and living our best life!

Adult Care Services has been utilizing yoga in both the Margaret T. Morris Assisted Living Center and the Susan J. Rheem Adult Day Center. A volunteer from the local Breathe Play Love Yoga (BPLY) Collective comes to the centers once a month to provide Chair Yoga classes. The BPLY practitioner teaches a form of Hatha Chair Yoga that she specially created for the populations at these two centers. The poses, along with some great music and a little dance, have really turned out to be a fun, rejuvenating exercise for the residents and participants! Even though it is called “Chair Yoga,” there are music breaks where the participants are encouraged to get up and have a little dance.

If you want to increase your quality of life, find a yoga class near you, or go online and take a class from the comfort of your home. QCBN

By Candace Lea

Candace Lea, MBA, is the community liaison and marketing person for Adult Care Services. Find out more at adultcareservices.org.