Yoga For A Healthy Midlife Transition

In our previous blogs, we have discussed the causes, trigger factors and symptoms of a stressful midlife transition. Both men and women experience a midlife transition in different ways. For most of us, it is stressful, as we are very busy with your routine worries. While men are overburdened by expectations, women have unique challenges to face. Nevertheless, we need to find a way out – something that will soothe our minds and make us feel relaxed.
When moving towards the solution part for a smooth midlife transition, we look at a wholesome regime that will relax our body and mind. Here, the most effective way is practicing yoga during midlife transition for good health. Yoga is popular for offering emotional and physical benefits, which is just what you need during your midlife.
Yoga mainly comprises yoga asana (poses), Pranayama (breathing exercises) and meditation techniques that can bring about positive changes in your life. This is not only good for midlife stress but also for the overall health and fitness of your body and mind.

Benefits of yoga during midlife transition

With growing age, we tend to get tired easily, the bones and muscles feel weak and the strength begins to decrease. Yoga, in addition to stress-relieving benefits, offers a host of physical benefits too.
Let us look at some of the important benefits of yoga in midlife transition,
Improved Strength – Yogasanas or yoga poses focus on movement and holding of body parts in a specific pattern. This helps to gain strength and improve your physical fitness.
Flexibility – The poses including bending and twisting in a particular manner, which improves the flexibility of the body. This greatly helps to keep your neck and back supple, which makes movements easier.
Balance and Coordination – Certain yoga poses that require holding in a particular position or working two body parts at a time, help improve balance and coordination. It can also help balance hormones and work wonders for those experiencing midlife problems.
Healthier bones and muscles – Regular yoga practice improves muscle strength and absorption of nutrients in the bones, thus making bones stronger.
Fitness and heart health – While other forms of exercises like aerobics help improve fitness, practicing yoga regularly too can improve your fitness. Cardio fitness or heart health especially also focuses on yoga poses and breathing exercises.
Stress management – The most popular benefit of yoga for midlife transition is relaxation of mind and body. Yoga helps relieve anxiety, negative thoughts, feelings of loneliness and other inappropriate emotions. Various yoga poses, breathing exercises and meditation techniques all focus on relieving stress.
These are just a few benefits – people practicing yoga regularly can feel fresh, energetic with increased positivity. It can also help elevate mood, improve concentration and memory, develop creativity and improve our overall performance.

Yoga for Midlife Transition

Now that we have seen the benefits of yoga, let us discuss some of the commonest yoga poses that can help us for healthy midlife.

• Tree pose – This pose is great for better balance and coordination, improved concentration and steadiness of mind. It is also good to strengthen legs, relieve back pain and stretch arms.

• Triangle pose -Triangle pose strengthens and stretches the shoulders, spine, hips, thighs, and calves. It also helps relieve anxiety and maintain the equilibrium of the body and the mind.

• Bridge pose -This pose is very useful to strengthen the shoulders and the back and prevent low back pain. It expands the chest and tones the abdomen, which improves overall fitness. It also improves blood circulation and reduces stress and fatigue.

• Butterfly pose -This pose is great to open the hips, stretch the thighs, groin and the knees. This pose is of great benefit to women, to reduce the menopausal symptoms, improved digestion and relieve fatigue.

• Cobra pose -While this pose improves flexibility of the neck, spine, and shoulders, it also strengthens the abdomen. It is of great benefit during midlife as it helps improve blood circulation, boost metabolism and relieve stress.

• Elevated legs or Legs up the wall pose – Keep legs elevated for a while helps relieve the stress in the back and the knees. It improves lymphatic drainage and offers relief from swollen ankles or tired legs. It also relaxes the body and the mind, while helping.

• Downward dog pose -This pose tones up the muscles of the back, chest, and legs. It improves circulation to the brain and helps calm the mind.
These are some of the yoga poses beneficial for midlife health. However, some poses may be contraindicated in people having certain medical conditions like joint and muscle conditions, high blood pressure, retinal problems or any other medical problems. Hence, for any such concerns, it is best to consult your physician and perform any yoga poses under the supervision of experts.

Pranayama or breathing exercises and meditation techniques in yoga are great for offering relaxation. These can be safely performed by most of us and can be modified to suit your health condition. These mostly involve breathing deeply while focusing on the breath. You can concentrate on the positivity that you breathe in while inhaling and feel the negative emotions get out of the body every time you exhale.
Yoga has great benefits for all ages and all phases of life. Midlife, being specifically challenging, performing yoga, Pranayama and meditation techniques can offer exceptional benefits and offer a smooth transition.

References
https://www.artofliving.org