Aug 28, 2017
Where is western medicine part
of the problem with stress and preventable disease
Can anyone actually promise
practices that will increase longevity or how long you live? And if
not, should we just do whatever we want and not worry about doing
yoga or our taking care of our health?
Are there any paradoxes that you
have discovered in working on the ideas of Yoga for Healthy Aging?
(e.g. that restorative practices can actually assist in weight
loss!)
Should yoga students just wait
until they start to feel "old" or develop an age-related chronic
illness such as high blood pressure before they start to learn
these specific techniques?
And what do we do with the
reality that we will all age, we will all suffer some period of ill
health and eventually die? Does yoga offer us any ways to address
this with an even mind and spirit?
I rap with Baxter Bell about healthy aging:
- The
six key factors for healthy aging
- The
difference between what our society tells us about aging and the
lived experience of people practicing Yoga and Ayurveda
- The
increasing amount of older people practicing and becoming empowered
by yoga
What you’ll get out of tuning in:
- Why
you should focus on healthspan instead of lifespan
- How
to use yoga for healthy aging
- Why
collaboration is much more impactful than competition
Links:
Show Highlights:
- 4:30
- In the medical profession, the main social assumption is that we
don't need to pause and reflect. This causes unaddressed stress for
the people who are supposed to be taking care of the rest of
us!
- 8:40
- While much of the mainstream media focuses on the next technology
or drug, Yoga is permeating into the culture more and more, with
more people than ever practicing yoga or interested in trying it in
the near future, and with more people from western medicine and
science advocating for it as well.
- 18:15
- In our modern society, the cultural norm is that as you age, you
start to deteriorate. But that is simply not the experience for
many people, which speaks to the importance of increasing
healthspan, not lifespan: instead of trying to live as long as we
can, let's try to live as healthfully as we can for the years we
have available.
- 21:50
- Some of the key themes for healthy aging include building
strength, flexibility, balance, and agility, developing
cardiovascular health and brain health, maintaining independence,
and practicing equanimity.
- 28:00
- Growing and expanding and creating with other people improves
reach and impact much more than retreating into a competitive
mindset.
- 33:50
- In many societies outside the western culture, there is much more
respect for older people, which is reflected in the way older
people live healthfully and easefully until late in
life.
Favorite Quotes:
- "It
was one of the few times that my mind slowed down, stopped,
reflected, and felt, as opposed to being on that treadmill of
what's next." - Dr. Baxter Bell
- "Especially for males in a modern context,
there's really no social acceptance of reflection." - Cate
Stillman
- "Increasing healthspan, not lifespan… I want to
be as healthy as I can for the years I have available." - Dr.
Baxter Bell
- "That's not what we're being told by mainstream
media. We're being told to expect problems, to get help, to be on
medications, to expect that we’ll need help with everyday
activities." - Dr. Baxter Bell
- "Know
what you want out of it and aim for that. Then this whole other
world is going to open, and you'll want different things in a few
months or in a few years." - Cate Stillman
- "When
people start to practice new ways of moving, and breathing, and
relating to themselves, their integrity increases." - Cate
Stillman
- "Maybe we're just okay, but we want to be
healthier than we are right now." - Dr. Baxter Bell
- "How
much is our expiration date a mindset?" - Cate Stillman
BIO:
Baxter Bell, MD, C-IAYT,
eRYT500
Cofounder of the Yoga for
Healthy Aging blog and co-author with Nina Zolotow of the upcoming
book "Yoga for Healthy Aging", Baxter is a medical doctor and
medical acupuncturist, as well as a certified yoga teacher and yoga
therapist. Baxter practiced as a family physician from 1989 to
2000. Then, in 2001, he completed the 18-month, 680-hour Advanced
Studies Program at Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, California,
with Richard Rosen, Rodney Yee, Mary Paffard, and Patricia
Sullivan. In 2000, he completed his 300-hour medical acupuncture
training. In 2017, he was certified as a yoga therapist by the
International Association of Yoga Therapists.
Based in Oakland, California,
Baxter was director of the Deep Yoga Teacher Training at Piedmont
Yoga Studio for seven years and is currently serving as an adjunct
faculty member on teacher training programs and therapeutic yoga
trainings around the country. He teaches locally in the San
Francisco Bay Area, offering regular yoga classes to the general
public as well as specialty classes for those with back pain and
adults with disabilities, and teaches workshops and retreats
worldwide with an emphasis on yoga for healthy aging and how yoga
can be used therapeutically to improve health and well-being. He
also combines his experience as a family physician with his
training in medical acupuncture in his complementary medical
practice in Oakland, where he focuses on acupuncture and
therapeutic yoga. He is featured in the Yoga Journal: Yoga for
Stress DVD as well as on the Practice Channel at YogaUOnline.com.
To find out more about Baxter or to contact him, visit
www.baxterbell.com, and to view his instructional videos (including
for many of the poses in his upcoming book) visit his YouTube
channel “Baxter Bell Yoga.”