Yoga for Seniors with Jennie MacGoy

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to everyone joining us today on our podcast. You're listening to one of our Successful Aging episodes this month on the Living to 100 Club program, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. Each week, our guests educate and inspire, helping you get the best out of all the years we're given, regardless of what obstacles come our way. Today's podcast is about yoga and how to incorporate it into our daily routines and weave it into our day. Our guest is Jenny McGaughy, certified yoga instructor. We discuss the 6 main areas where yoga can be a benefit, especially for the 55 and over age group. These are strength, balance, stretching, proprioception, which refers to awareness of where our body is in space, breathwork, and meditation. Where can we do this practice if we don't have time for a long class? Or we prefer to avoid group classes. Jenny will offer practical tips and recommendations as well as how to tailor or customize a particular practice for individual needs. Be sure to join us. A little background first on Jenny. Jenny McGaughy is a certified yoga instructor and movement instructor specializing in 50 and over age group, beginners, and those living with persistent pain. She's known for customizing her sessions to each unique body, so every participant experiences the benefits of stretching, strengthening, balance work, breath work, and guided meditations. A recent transplant from the Washington, D.C. area, Jenny is a mom of 4 and lives in Carlsbad with her husband, teenage daughters, and dog who prefers to nap on Joni's yoga mat. Of course. Welcome to our program. Glad to have you with us today.

Thanks, Joe. I'm really excited to be here.

Great. Great. I always like to open by asking our guests to share with us kind of the journey that brought you to where you are today. I touched on your background, of course, but maybe the highlights of how you came to be where you are today.

Okay. Uh, I did not know anything about yoga until I was about 45 years old. Maybe had heard of downward facing dog, but that's about it. Just somehow did not know about it at the time. So this is about 10 years ago. I was raising 4 children. My husband traveled a lot. I am an anxious person by nature. So life was rather chaotic and my brain was rather chaotic. And so I was looking for something else to add to my toolbox of ways to deal with the stress of life. So I stumbled into a yoga class. It was a power yoga class, and I actually fell in love with it. And it's been a part of my life ever since. I did my first teacher training in power yoga. This was in Sterling, Virginia, with a wonderful studio there. But graduated, but pretty quickly figured out that that wasn't the style that was going to best suit my body. And then the people that were looking for yoga who I knew, um, weren't looking for that so much either. I was, you know, my mid-forties at the time. So I decided to open my own space. I wasn't a gym person, so I didn't go try teaching at a gym. I opened my own space in my house in Virginia, and the people that kept finding me said, I'd love to try it, but I've had a hip replacement, or I don't— I can't do yoga, I'm in a much larger body, or I'm 60 years old. So I quickly had to do several trainings to make sure I could provide the right experience for these folks. Did that very successfully for a few years. Pandemic hit, no need to say too much more about that. Uh, the family decided to relocate here to California just to— in a pursuit of a better quality of life and have been slowly building up a business here. Lots of yoga in the San Diego area.

Yes, there is. Yeah.

But I haven't found a whole lot for people who aren't your typical yogi, who aren't, you know, in their 20s, who aren't particularly bendy. And that's where I come in. And then even more specifically, I just really, really love working with seniors. So that's where I am today.

Sure.

Sure.

So you have a practice, you have a yoga practice. Tell us about the types of clients that you have, maybe where you are, how often you offer classes.

Okay. I used to have a studio in my home. I was very spoiled, but I have shifted at my house here. Southern California real estate is considerably more expensive than the D.C. area. So I didn't have space here. So I am now primarily a traveling yoga instructor. I travel all through North County. I teach at Carlsbad City Parks for— those classes are typically for a little bit younger folks, but I do have people in their 70s in those classes. I go to various retirement communities where I have a range of people who are still very, very active. I quickly learned that, you know what, just because you may look like a senior or your age says 55, 60 plus doesn't mean that they aren't extremely physically fit, uh, and many of them are. So luckily I've got all that, you know, kind of power yoga background where I can give them plenty challenge too. But in these retirement communities, I also have folks that are in a wheelchair and do not get out of the wheelchair, so I work with them as well. We're all in one class most of the time, so it takes a lot of quick You know, okay, you're standing and you can do this. You're not standing. I still want you to be able to do something. I also have right now one class and I'm looking to branch out further at a skilled nursing facility where most of the patients are in various stages of dementia. And so that's been a challenge, but also incredibly gratifying when I'm able to work with them and, and I get a smile. Or I get some of them to, you know, they're able to move their shoulders, or we do a brief guided meditation and they can be right there and vocalize very clearly, you know, what we're talking about. So it really, it runs the range. I group classes, but also I love working one-on-ones, particularly when I'm dealing with folks that have had a, you know, living with a persistent pain issue or who have had some sort of body part replaced. So that really works very well, one-on-one at least to start.

Yeah, making those adjustments. I like what you said earlier there about, you know, not being able to determine much from the person's age, the chronological age. That number keeps getting us into trouble, I think, more and more. So let's get that CA out of the picture and just look at functional ability.

For sure.

Yeah, you, um, you, you took some advanced classes then in training for working with some of these maybe age-related disabilities, maybe the chronic pain or arthritis, or maybe, you know, being wheelchair-bound. So what kind of— I know this is a broad question, but what kind of adjustments, or what are some of the considerations for this older age group have you had to make?

There are many. I'll first say I consider myself a bit of a bag lady because when I travel, I bring multiple bags full of what are called yoga props. I have yoga blocks, blankets, yoga straps, tennis balls, resistance bands. I have all of that that I will try my best to bring to the various people I work with. But I also tell people, you don't have to go buy that stuff if we're working one-on-one. And for some reason, I don't know why I wouldn't have the things with me. But if you don't have a yoga strap, you can use the belt from your bathrobe. If you don't have a yoga block, if you've got yourself a real sturdy plastic container or maybe a stair, your bottom step that you can step on. So I do like to stress to folks, you don't have to go buy a bunch of fancy stuff, but There are lots of ways to customize to each person's needs. I also, though, want to say I don't— I'm very careful with my language because I don't want people to be afraid to move. Because I'm sure you know in your work, as soon as someone's afraid, I'm afraid I'm going to fall, I'm afraid I'm going to hurt this, that sets a mindset where you're much less likely to try something.

So, yeah, it spills over into a lot of different behaviors, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does. So I like to— yeah, we'll talk about, all right, you've had a recent hip replacement. First of all, what did your doctor say? Is there anything you're not supposed to do? And if not, that gives me a lot of information. If someone comes to me and hasn't seen a doctor, say they're just living with a pain issue. Oh, my shoulder hurts. Oh, I've got this, you know, shooting pain. They would love for me to be able to tell them, I think, because it's easier. But I don't. I know my place.

I know my scope.

Of work, and I immediately say, please see your healthcare provider. I like to partner with various physical therapists, perhaps a chiropractor, what have you, occupational therapists, and direct them there and say, please get this checked out by a doctor or healthcare provider. And then once you know what you're working with, then come see me. Yeah, I've done enough anatomy trainings that I'm pretty well-versed. If someone says I'm not supposed to flex my spine, I know, I know what they're talking about. So, but my language is positive. I try to, like, for example, and we might get to this later, when I'm one-on-one with someone, yes, we talk about what you've had replaced or what hurts, what the doctor has said. But then I like to say, well, what feels good? What movement do you take during your day that feels good? Or what can we try? So to try to look at the whole person, not focus so much if we don't have to on what hurts, but focus a little bit on what feels good and how and you continue to build on that.

Yeah, yeah, thanks. That makes a lot of sense 'cause we do wanna rule out what I would call malignant pain, you know, because there are instances where there is a real serious cause or precipitating factor to the pain. So that's smart to, you know, wanna rule that out first. So then you can work with, you know, your other approaches. So you make some of these adjustments for the chronic pain for someone who's, like we said, wheelchair-bound, maybe struggling with certain types of flexibility or stretching or strength-related activities. So yeah, let's, um, let's jump into, you know, the, the, we've talked about 6 areas that you like to focus on, you know, and I mentioned in the intro. So let's, let's start with strength. What's important when you approach somebody to help with strength, maybe, you know, increasing muscle mass or whatever's going on? What, what are your approaches to help with that strength issue?

There's a lot of buzz about strength in the movement community, and I think rightly so. With my typical demographic, we are starting to lose muscle mass as we age. It's a function of aging. It's a function of perhaps sedentary lifestyle. Most people don't look at yoga and say, I could do some strengthening. They will typically say, well, I go to yoga for stretching or for breathwork. And yes, absolutely, those are good things. But I, again, dealing with the age groups that I deal with, and I'm in that, I'm 52. So I am in that age group, or very close to it. There are very creative ways you can incorporate strengthening into a yoga practice. The first is to use your body weight by shifting it certain ways. You can make certain areas of your body heavier, and, and strengthen that way. One small example would be a standing balance pose. If you are putting all of your weight on one leg to challenge your balance, you're shifting all that weight there. And so you do have an opportunity to strengthen a little. And this is where it's important for someone who's hoping to help people with strength. You've got to progressively build that up to more strength, and eventually your body weight's going to You're going to max out. Your body's going to be like, hey, I've got that. I know how to manage that 200 pounds, whatever it is that you're standing on. So that's when I bring in little dumbbells, hand weights. You could bring in a water bottle or water bottle filled with sand. We can get really creative with what that progressive load or weight looks like. And you can do many, many of your yoga poses. So your You're mindful, you're present, you're breathing. But hey, let's kick it up a little bit and add a little, you know, a dumbbell. Now, I don't work with people like a personal trainer would in a gym where we're benching or bench pressing and all that kind of, you know, massive loads. Then I will turn them over to those professionals. But there are definitely ways to strengthen the core. Everybody's talking about the core. There are ways you can do that in a yoga practice. We do plank. In yoga, we do crunches, but a little bit differently than maybe what most people envision. And there are customizations. Someone listening might say, oh, plank, forget it. There's no way. Or push-up, forget it. I like to start where I know everybody can do something. So for example, with plank, you start with on your hands and knees and you walk your knees back. And maybe you leave your knees there. That might be just enough to get those abdominal muscles activated. And then maybe over time you curl those toes under and you come into a full plank, or you add some weight, or there's the wall. Probably my favorite prop— yoga prop is the wall. Go stand at your wall, step your feet back with your hands on the wall, Get yourself in one nice long line. There's your plank pose. And then we can build from there. Walk your hands further down the wall. That's going to be harder. You're putting more of your body weight. So, I like folks to know that you can do yoga. You can strengthen in yoga. And I've got a whole bunch of tools to start with. My folks that are in a wheelchair, They're not, you know, going to have probably the strongest abdominal muscles on the planet. However, I can get them to challenge their glutes by squeezing and releasing. I can have them squeeze their thighs. Yeah, that's all kind of right around in that, you know, in the torso area there. So they can build a little bit of strength to whether or not they are going to need it, you know, for day-to-day life. So yeah.

Yeah, that's great. That's great. I love the notion of the progressive moves starting with, for the plank, for example, on all fours and gradually moving those knees. I think that's smart. And we build up increased tolerance and eventually we're able to advance to getting the knees off the floor. And yeah, that's good. And again, using the wall. So that's perfect. And how about balance? That's number 2. What do you, how do you incorporate some approaches to improve our balance?

Another super important part of life as we age. Our eyesight is not perhaps as good as it was, you know. So there are a variety of reasons we need to make sure we continue to not just keep the balance that we have, but maybe challenge it further so that we're, you know, we trip on a rug, you can catch yourself, you wobble a little bit stepping off the sidewalk. So yeah, balance is right up there with strength. Anyone who's gone to a yoga class and didn't like challenging their balance, it may have been because they were in a room full of 50 people and they were standing with no support whatsoever and they were told to stand on one leg. That can be way too much for folks. So again, considering my population in general, we'll start at the wall or we'll start with a chair near us and know that it's there. Maybe you even have to use it, but let's, you know, put a hand on that wall, put a hand on that chair, and now stand on one leg. Start there. Does that seem doable? Can you come up onto your fingertips on that chair or on that wall?

Doable?

Can you take your hand away from the wall for a second, knowing that it's there? So again, it's a progressive— I want people to feel successful And then, boy, if they want, if they're like, this is easy peasy, which it is sometimes for folks, will be on one leg, they will be away from any sort of support perhaps. And I'll say, close your eyes. Well, that sends people wobbly. Now, I only do that when I know that they're in a position where they can do it. I'm not in the business of like making people fall down. But ways you can incorporate that into your daily life. I love to tell people when you're brushing your teeth in the morning, You've got a counter, most likely your bathroom counter right there. Shift your weight onto one leg as you're brushing. Keep a hand near the counter and then see if you can take your hand off the counter. You're right there. You've got support if you need it. You're multitasking. You're getting one of your daily things done during the day. Maybe it's when you're doing dishes in the kitchen sink, anything where you've got some support if you're concerned. About falling, but where you can continue to challenge yourself. And I've got the— I run the gamut because I have folks that maybe they don't stand either. Okay, if they're in a wheelchair, we can still work on some leg strength while we're here. You know, we can, we can get some movement. So anything from those folks to someone who wants to take the most challenging balance pose, I'll find a way to challenge it because I do think that's important.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah, because as you said, we can all stand on two feet and, you know, we have relatively little problem with balance in, in the main. But then when we challenge it, when we push ourselves a little bit— yeah, I love these exercises, by the way. I think they're great. So if we stop these exercises, do we lose that kind of grounding? Or, I mean, when does it wear out if we stop it? Or should we always be doing it?

I think we should always be doing it.

Okay, good.

I haven't scientifically tested to see, but I do know when folks have been away for a while, say they were on vacation, say they just took a break and they come back, certainly they feel tight and all that kind of stuff, maybe a little less strong. But the other balance gets affected too, which is why my approach is usually ways you can incorporate it into your day-to-day life. So if you know you're going to be away for a while, you can't make it to class, you can't do a private session, what have you, here are some things you can do at home so that you can continue. It's pretty easy to find ways as you are moving through life to do all of these things, strengthening, challenging your balance, all of it. And I think that's key because that's— people are more likely to do it. You just— I think it's hard. I mean, I have some diehard folks that come class every week, or they want to do a private session, you know, as often as possible. But that's not realistic for everyone. So I want to make sure, hey, if you can't do that, here are things you can do at home. They take very short periods of time. You don't have to spend an hour working on your balance every day. So I like to be practical.

Yeah. And I really appreciate what you said about how this translates to our everyday behaviors, because we might be practicing our balance exercise or activity. And it really does translate into walking on an uneven surface or walking on, you know, maybe a slope that we're not accustomed to or a steep curb, something like that. It's a sample of how it applies outside of that exercise room, right? So that's what we're talking about. It's improving this function so it so it can translate into bigger, more important areas.

Yeah, exactly. That— at least that's my approach. I want people to feel better when they leave me, but also to continue to feel better and continue to do things later. I think that's what a teacher ultimately is there for. It's not just so that they can do everything in the classroom or the yoga studio, but it's to take it into life. I'll give you a brief example of how I was challenged. I like to work on mobility. I don't think we put that on our list, but arm mobility, neck mobility, ankle mobility came into practice for me. We do, I work a lot with people with pointing, flexing, circles. You can add weight to that. Good mobility helps with your balance, helps with how, where you know you are in space. Well, I was going hiking with my family recently And we were in this, on this hill, and there was this trench. And I had to walk on the inside arches of my feet to make my way down. Not a typical way that you would walk. But because I do do that when I'm practicing my own yoga, when I'm working with people, we do, we should, we practice shifting our weight onto the inner arches, the outer arches, all the ways. My ankles were like, okay, yeah, you can do that because you're used to doing that. You've been doing that pretty regularly, challenging yourself to do that. So that was a real practical example of if I hadn't ever been taking my feet that way, turning them in and walking on the inner arches of my feet, oh, I don't think that hike, at least that part of the hike, would not have been very fun.

No, it couldn't be for very long, that's for sure. Yeah, it's like running on a beach that's got a a steep slope to it, and it's hard. One foot is fine, but the other foot where you're, you know, taxing your, your, your arch support, that's harder for sure. Yeah. So what about stretching? And that's what we think of, of course, when we talk about yoga and stretching every day. How do we incorporate some of these activities?

I like to think of moving your spine in all the directions. Movements when you can, once a day. I, I make sure I do that in every class, uh, every session that I work with, with a person. So that would be folding forward. That can be if the doctor says it's okay. I did have a, a student with osteoporosis in her spine. Now, her doctor said, I don't care what you do. He unfortunately was very hands-off in terms of what what she should or shouldn't do. I studied osteoporosis, so I knew what I thought was appropriate. And for, for her, for forward folds, we took them slightly. We didn't completely eliminate it because when you tell someone to completely eliminate a movement from their life, how are you going to do that? Is she never going to bend over and tie her shoes? No, she's going to bend over some, but we did it slightly and mindfully. So that's one example. One way to take the spine can be a nice stretch for the back. You take a back bend. That's the second movement of the spine. All of a sudden you're stretching the front of the body. We do side bending, a nice stretch. It could be all the way up in the arm, down the rib cage, down the leg. My intention over time, those muscles between the ribs, the intercostal muscles, if you give them lots of opportunities to stretch, they can lead to better breathing because you're making more room. And who couldn't use better, better breathing? So we will take the spines side to side. And then twisting. So many people have back pain. And from what I've studied, and it's primarily low back pain, from what I've learned, that discomfort, that pain in the low back can sometimes be due to stiffness in the thoracic, the mid back. Where your ribs are. So we will focus when I work with folks on gentle, mindful, slow, you know, twisting. If it hurts, maybe we don't do that today. But those are good movements. We also don't twist much in our day-to-day life. I mean, maybe— I was gonna say maybe when you back out of the driveway, but nowadays with the cameras in the cars, you don't even have to turn around to back out of your driveway with your car. So And then the last one is growing taller through the crown of the head. Some folks will say that that is actually a spinal movement. And you're basically trying to invite some space, some stretching between the vertebrae of your spine. And that might lead to a little bit better posture and maybe lead to a little bit better breathing. So yes, stretching in all the ways is a good thing. Does everything stay all stretched out after you do it? Absolutely not. Come back. So that's the nature of how the body works. You're not going to stretch something and it's not going to stay all stretched out. So that's why repetitively, frequently doing it, even if it's just for like 5 breaths, but frequently, can be really good. So those are some of the examples.

Yeah, no, great. I hope our listeners are taking notes because these are perfect tips and things that we can do throughout our day. You know, I had a physiologist, um, um, physical therapist who was on my program last year, and he talked about stretching, the benefits of stretching. He talked about the, um, how when we hold these positions, the synovial fluid moves around in our joints, and it really helps us to stay flexible and loose and removes some of the pain, because when we make those moves, it's almost like more lubrication in our joints. So That was just a real eye-opener for me.

And he's— here she is— is absolutely right. As we age, though, you don't make more synovial fluid. You're only given so much. I think— now, this is outside of my expertise, but I believe the injections that people get in their knees and such, I think, is trying to imitate synovial fluid. Please don't quote me on that, but I think. But But yes, by moving, I— we do a lot of movement, moving of the joints to not create more of that fluid, but at least, like you just said, lubricate, keep what we got going because that's all we're going to— it's all we're given naturally. You don't make more. Very, very good point. Yeah. Hips, keep those hips moving, knees moving, all of it. Yeah. Good point.

Great information. Great recommendations. I know we're Just watching the time here, but proprioception again, how we, how we see ourselves in our space. What do we, what do we need to work on there?

It's quite fascinating if you think about, if you really think about it, knowing exactly where you are. Would I, that's kind of my purpose in offering some of the warrior poses in yoga, which are standing poses, putting your feet in a little bit of an unusual position. Putting your arms in an unusual position to challenge you to pay attention. Where is my arm right now? Where is my foot right now? I don't know how consciously we do that throughout our day, but I think over time, bringing that attention by putting the body in these certain, you know, unusual positions to, to the degree you are able. It starts to train the brain to think, okay, you know, say my 80-year-old, 88-year-old dad is very comfortable moving about his home. He knows where the furniture is. He knows where the rugs are. It's just automatic. But if he goes shopping somewhere or, you know, just outside of the space that he's very familiar with, he needs to pay attention. So, okay, what, what are my surroundings? Where are my feet going? Where are my arms? You know, how am I holding myself up? I think it really serves people well, no matter what the age. You don't have to be 88 to be thinking about those kinds of things. So that is what I have found by putting people in somewhat unusual, not painful, but unusual positions. I mean, we don't walk around with our arms out like this, and we don't, you know, turn our toes in and turn the other foot out. But it's a great way to have greater understanding of your body, where it is, so that when you're out somewhere that you're not familiar with, you'll better be able to plant yourself, so to speak.

Yeah, like we said, we'll know how to apply this in another setting that's not so familiar, right?

Correct.

And not necessary to have our eyes closed when we put ourselves in these positions?

Oh, absolutely not. No, no, not to start. And in fact, I rarely do that because some of these positions, um, are quite a challenge just to put yourself there. It's like, what, where, which way do I put my foot? How, where's my knees? So no, only if I have some feisty person who, you know, really wants to, as Emeril Lagasse, you know, kick it up a notch, you know, then, then maybe I'd say if not close your eyes, at least take your gaze to a different location. But no, no, typically to challenge that is Your eyes wide open.

No more texting. Okay, so maybe one limb that's in an unusual position and then glaze the other way.

Right.

Sure. Okay. All right. How about breathwork? Um, so important, of course, but how do we incorporate breathwork exercises in our day-to-day activities?

Okay, so many opportunities. I know, again, being an anxious person, I find it a wonderful way to help calm me down, help me from spiraling into a thought process that's not helpful. The best way to start, I think, is when you wake up in the morning, sit up in bed. You don't even have to get out of bed. Place one hand on your chest, one on your abdomen. Take 5 breaths. See if you can keep your attention on noticing those breaths. The reason I suggest placing hands on your body is it does help a little bit to concentrate. I'll say, yeah, you could say to yourself, feel the expansion when you breathe in and the softening when you breathe out. Start there. Do that for a week. 5 breaths when you wake up in the morning. And then there are a variety of calming breathing practices that I will teach to folks that they then bring into their daily lives. So that's your very basics. I think people get a little overwhelmed. Like, you know, you hear about alternate nostril breathing and, and that's a great one, but You know, longer exhales and count to 4, 7, 8, all, there's a million of them out there.

Yeah.

But if you can't just concentrate or connect for 5 breaths, you're taking it too far too fast. It's like, yeah, the progressiveness. Let's start with something that's doable. I start every private session, every class with breath awareness. For example, do you know, I'm sure you do, Joe, that when you breathe in on the side body, You can feel your ribs expand and then they soften when you breathe out. Just, I did not have that awareness several years ago. Isn't that interesting? You know, we don't just breathe in the front. I'll give you one example of how it was practically used. This was a few years ago. Uh, it was a dear friend who was a yoga student, was a very committed yogi, and she had to go for an MRI and it ended up being a closed MRI. I guess the open one was broken. She'd been practicing with me for a while. She was very, very anxious, as you can imagine, if you're in an enclosed space. Oh, and she has a fear of that. She has a fear of enclosed spaces. She said, Jenny, I did my yoga breathing. I think she prayed too, so I got to give a shout out for that, for those of you that that helps. But she said, I concentrated on my yoga breathing, on my breathwork, and I got through a closed MRI as a claustrophobic person. So it works, but it has to start with some awareness that's realistic and then slowly build. Same with meditation.

Well, great, great. And meditation, the last one. Um, of course we can have little mini episodes of meditating and we can have more expanded episodes. What do you, what do you recommend?

So many people are afraid of meditation because they think they need to be on this certain level where you're on a cushion and you are chanting, and you can empty your mind for 30 minutes. And while some people can do that, and I think it's marvelous, most of us don't start there. Where I like to have people start is with a guided meditation. I love to do those at the end of a private session or at the end of a yoga class where the person just can sit or lie down. They do have to focus on listening to me talk. So that's their meditation to start. I might do some guided imagery. Perhaps we go for a walk through the forest. Perhaps we go for a walk at the beach. I will nudge them back because even with that, sometimes people's minds wander. Very normal. But I'll guide them back. So I think guided meditation, and of course there are apps out there, some free, some you pay for. Probably a million YouTube videos. That's where I would start with meditation. The purpose of it, I, in just very basic terms, is to get outta your head. I love, I spend so much time up here in my head. That's a great way to remove myself from that and focus on something else. Even if it's, again, 5 or 10 breaths. Practically, if we wanna mention that briefly, Take a— go take a walk. See on your walk if you can concentrate on listening for bird calls. I love birds. Maybe that's your meditation, is listening for the sounds of birds. And every time your mind wanders to what you have to be doing when you get back to the house, does the dog need something, do the kids need something, you try, and it does get better. You say, oh, wait a minute. I'm supposed to be paying attention to the bird sounds. You will get there. Walking also, you can concentrate just on the feeling of your feet as you walk. Just try to keep your concentration there. So there's some real, um, realistic, practical ways to get out of your head, to get the benefits of meditation that aren't get perhaps that 30 minutes of quiet and being at peace with the universe. It's a wonderful goal to have. I'm not there yet. I'm not sure I'll ever get there, but I can definitely do these, these brief guided or, you know, quiet meditation. So it's a practical, it's a really good tool to have in your toolbox.

Yeah. And it's very similar to practicing meditation on its own because we do wander, our mind wanders and we And, you know, try to redirect and get back to that reduced thinking. And as we're walking down the street or walking to pay attention to what else is going on around us, reminds me of this funny line that Sharon Stone, the actress, mentioned. She said, you know, my friend told me my mind is like a bad neighborhood. I shouldn't go there alone.

Yes.

Yeah. And thoughts, yeah, thoughts are, you know, sometimes thinking is overrated, right?

100%. And the beauty of this is, I would just, one last thought on that is when you notice that you're not paying attention. So when you say, oh, I forgot to notice my steps, or, oh, I forgot to pay attention to the bird sounds, you have made tremendous progress because you've, one, you've interrupted wherever you just went instead of the steps or the birds. But two, you've noticed, and that'll happen, and that's progress. Yeah, getting out of that bad neighborhood.

Yeah, no, that's great. That's right. It's the awareness of what happened, and now we're redirecting. So, Jenny, this has been an exceptional conversation. I think it's been great. And, you know, we know a lot about yoga. Many people practice yoga, you know, faithfully and are very good and devoted. And I think this takes it really to another level and helps people to incorporate some of these practices without going to a long class. And you know, that's fine. Great classes are great. Studios are great. But I mean, my wife had a yoga wall put in the studio in our home and, you know, she's out there and, you know, props and all that. So it is great. But I think your tips, your recommendations are very helpful. And I hope people, you know, are mindful of the, you know, all the long list of what we can do throughout our day. These are great, great tips.

Marvelous. Terrific. That makes me happy. That's what makes, brings me great joy. If I can help in small ways to help people feel a little bit better in their bodies, in their minds, then I've had a good day.

Yeah. So for those people who might wanna contact you, how can they do that?

Best would probably be my website, which is a little long and I probably should spell it. It is Jennie, J-E-N-N-I-E, McGoy, M-A-C-G-O-Y. So that's JennyMcGoyYoga, all one long word, dot com. Yep, you can find me on the socials and LinkedIn and all that good stuff, but I think my website is probably the best place to start.

So they can get more information about you. They can contact you through your website if they're interested in some further coaching or—

Yeah, absolutely. Whether it's a group class, they want to get some of their neighbors together, they want to meet me at a park or if there's someone that's got some chronic pain going on or they're brand new to yoga, to work at least initially one-on-one just to, you know, get things going. Yes, that would be the best way. You can— all my contact information is there.

Terrific. Terrific. Well, I encourage our listeners to do that. For today, though, it looks like we're out of time. But before we wrap up, I just want to remind our listeners to visit my website, livingto100.club. Sign up for my email list, and download a free copy of my 9 Tips to Make Living Longer Enjoyable. You'll also see an option to contact me with questions and comments. I really welcome your feedback. Jenny, thanks so much for being a guest on our program today. I, I really appreciate all the good information you shared.

You're most welcome.

Yeah, great. And thanks to our listeners for tuning in today. Hope to see you next time.

Hi, this is Suzanne Newman, host of the Answers for Elders podcast and radio show. We are the North Star that guides you through the complicated journey of senior care with trusted experts in money, law, living solutions, and more. So join us on this station, your favorite podcast channel, or just go to answersforelders.com. Meet the wayshowers who will help your journey go a lot easier.