I went to a Sarah Powers’ workshop once and she said, “what we think of as aging is really just neglect”. Sarah is big into long slow stretches. She does Yin Yoga. In that style they stay in poses for a long time to really juice the joints. See Paul Grilley’s article on it here and check out his book here.

Ever held Pigeon pose for 5 whole minutes? It’s really tough. All kinds of things come up and that seems to be the point. Sarah says that it’s about learning to be flexible about our flexibility. You spend the time just being in the pose, softening, learning to accept what comes up.

She talked about coming face-to-face with what you cling to, and what you have aversions to. An aversion is *anytime* you wait for something different instead of just accepting what is. Wow, sometimes I spend the whole day in aversion. And you definitely experience aversion to the way your hip aches from holding Pigeon for so long. But you get to practice accepting that. In Yin Yoga you’ve got the time and have the focus because you’re not about to jump to the next pose. Our own yoga mat is such an ideal place to practice that kind of thing. It’s safe. It’s a practice ground for the rest of our life.