Desert Island Yoga Poses

by Nina

The other day I got an email from the manager of a web site for men (which shall remain nameless for now) asking me to recommend 3 to 5 poses that I thought men should practice every day. At first, I rebelled at the thought. As you know, we at Yoga for Healthy Aging recommend in general for both men and women alike that you mix it up and practice a wide variety of poses throughout the week. In addition, we also believe that everyone is different�and their lifestyles and exercises routines are different�so that there is no one single set of poses that will work best for all people. But the truth is that I could not resist the thought experiment that this query provided. It's like one of the "desert island" games: if you could take only 3 to 5 yoga poses with you to a desert island, which ones would you take?

And then I thought that if I came up with a good list, it might inspire some people to get started with the practice, and that is always a good thing. So just for fun, here's what I came up with. And if you'd like to join in the game, please do by leaving a comment on this post!

1. Reclined Leg Stretch (Supta Padangusthasana). Stretches muscles in your legs and hips that can become tight from desk jobs and/or many other types of exercise, such as running, hiking, or cycling. For long-lasting results, hold at least 1.5 minutes. See Featured Pose: Reclined Leg Stretch.

2. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana). Stretches tight shoulders and legs at the same time it cultivates upper body strength (try holding it for 1 to 3 minutes!). See Featured Pose: Downward-Facing Dog Pose.

 3. Warrior 2 pose (Virabradrasana 2). Cultivates both upper and lower body strength while also increasing hip flexibility and improving balance. Featured Pose: Warrior 2 Pose.

4. Tree pose (Vrksasana). Cultivates leg strength, and shoulder and hip flexibility while challenging your balance. See Featured Pose: Tree Pose. 

5. Legs Up the Wall pose (Viparita Karani). Reduces stress levels, which is so important both for physical and psychological health. Bonus is a good stretch for your legs and, if you take your arms into a cactus position, a good stretch for chest and arms as well. You can do this at the end of any yoga practice or on its own anytime you need to de-stress. See Featured Pose: Legs Up the Wall Pose.

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How Much Physical Activity is Enough?

by Nina

The Walk by Vincent van Gough

After reading all those posts by Ram and me (Sitting is the New Smoking, The Ill Effects of Prolonged Sitting (Part 2), The Ill Effects of Prolonged Sitting (Part 1)) about the dangers of being sedentary and/or inactive, you might be wondering exactly how much exercise do you need to do to counteract the time you spend sitting. (A great many of us work at desk jobs, so for many of us spending many hours a day sitting is just a fact of life.) Fortunately for us, some scientists had the exact same question. A recent study in The Lancet called Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? A harmonised meta-analysis of data from more than 1 million men and women reported the results of a systematic review (meta-analysis) of data from 16 studies that associated daily sitting time and physical activity with �all-cause� mortality. 

I don�t want to keep you in suspense, so I�ll just tell you what they found: 60-75 minutes per day of physical activity seemed to eliminate the increased risk of death associated with too much sitting time. Here�s the conclusion of the study: 

�High levels of moderate intensity physical activity (ie, about 60�75 min per day) seem to eliminate the increased risk of death associated with high sitting time. These results provide further evidence on the benefits of physical activity, particularly in societies where increasing numbers of people have to sit for long hours for work and may also inform future public health recommendations.� 

Now that might leave you with an important question: do I have to do all that exercise in single session?

In the NPR piece in which I heard about this study Care To Offset All Your Office Sitting? It'll Take Just An Hour A Day, Allison Aubrey asked the lead author of the study, Prof Ulf Ekelund, PhD, those very questions. He told her that the answer is yes, you can do your exercise in bits and pieces, at different times of the day, and with different types of exercise He said just be sure that the intensity of your exercise is high enough to get your heart rate up (walking at a brisk pace, for example). He also added, somewhat encouragingly, that even 20 minutes reduces some of the risk. But the more you can exercise you can do, the better. 

So that means if you're practicing yoga for exercise, you don't have to do a single practice that is at least one hour long�you could, for example, do one half an hour in the morning and one half an hour in the evening.  And you could also do a shorter practice and combine with a brisk walk or a bicycle ride or any other physical activity that you enjoy. 

I�m sure we�ll be hearing more on this topic in the near future and they'll probably be changing their minds like they always seem to do. But I say for now aiming for 60 minutes of physical activity per day is a reasonable goal to aim for. Are you with me?

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Sitting is the New Smoking

by Nina

Woman Smoking by Kitagawa Utamaro

�Being out of shape could be more harmful to health and longevity than most people expect, according to a new, long-term study of middle-aged men. The study finds that poor physical fitness may be second only to smoking as a risk factor for premature death.� �Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times 

Have you heard the phrase �Sitting is the New Smoking� yet? Because recently I�ve been hearing it more and more often. And although lthough Ram didn�t use it in his recent post The Ill Effects of Prolonged Sitting he did say, �For people who engage in prolonged sitting activities, their risk of heart attack is about the same as smoking.� 

His post cited three different studies that showed the dangers of spending too many hours a day sitting. (That post got me to spend more time standing up at my sit-stand desk!) Then just a week later I read a NY Times article Being Unfit May Be Almost as Bad for You as Smoking about a new study on the longevity of men who were active versus those who were inactive (they measured aerobic capacity to indicate the subjects' general level of activity and fitness). What was special about this study was that it focused on a large group of about 1,000 healthy Swedish men of age 50, and followed them through the rest of their life spans (45 years!). (Many of these types of studies in the past have been done on older people for much shorter periods of time.)

The conclusion of the study Low aerobic capacity in middle-aged men associated with increased mortality rates during 45 years of follow-up was this:

�In this representative population sample of middle-aged men, low aerobic capacity was associated with increased mortality rates, independent of traditional risk factors, including smoking, blood pressure and serum cholesterol, during more than 40 years of follow-up.� 

And not only was poor fitness/low aerobic capacity second only to smoking as a risk factor for increased mortality, it was actually even unhealthier than high blood pressure or high cholesterol! Yes, the study found that the men who were rated as highly fit but who had high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels tended to live longer than men who were rated as �out-of-shape� but who healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels. 

And although the study just focused on men (an ongoing problem in scientific studies), the NY Times reported that: 

But �there is no reason not to think� that the rest of us would also share any beneficial associations between fitness and longevity, said Per Ladenvall, a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, who led the study. Past studies involving women have found such links, he said. 

Perhaps I am preaching to the choir by sharing this information (because you may already be practicing yoga on a regular basis and understand all its many benefits), but for those who are not yet physically active or who have family members or friends who are not active, the takeaway is clear: start being more physically active! The New York Times article concluded by quoting the Dr. Ladenvall saying that even small amounts of physical activity can have a positive effect.

�Encouragingly, if you now are concerned about the state of your particular aerobic capacity, you most likely can increase it just by getting up and moving. �Even small amounts of physical activity,� Dr. Ladenvall said, �may have positive effects on fitness.�

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Free-cycling vs. Recycling Books on Aging

by Nina

In my neighborhood, we�re big into free-cycling. For those of you who don�t know what that means, for us in Berkeley free-cycling means putting things you no longer want or can�t use�clothes, household goods, knickknacks, books, CDs, furniture, etc.�on the sidewalk so that anyone who wants them can simply pick them up and take it home. I�m both a giver and taker (have found some interesting things!), but mostly a giver. I�m so dedicated to this practice, that it almost hurts me to actually just recycle something (or, God forbid, throw something out). In fact, when a friend of mine was downsizing recently due to a divorce and I heard that she was planning to her old books to the dump, I begged her to give them to me so I could �get rid� of them for her by free-cycling them. And indeed as odd a collection of books as it was�old, new, fiction, non-fiction, obscure, common, young adult, super sophisticated.�it only took a matter of days before those hundreds of books were completely gone. 

So when Brad came home the other day with a stack of books on aging that a colleague of his had left behind, I sorted them into two piles: 1) scientific books about mechanisms of aging that I wanted to keep and 2) mass market books on �how to stay young forever� that I intended to free-cycle. Now if you�ve read our posts about aging you might be able to guess why I didn�t want to keep those stay young forever books. As I said in my post, What is Aging, Anyway? 

�if someone out there tells you they can �stop� or even �reverse� aging�I've heard both claims myself�you should be very skeptical. Because right now with so much unknown about aging, there is no proof that any of these anti-aging solutions are effective (and, in some cases, like overuse of certain supplements or human growth hormones, they could actually harm you).� 

And, of course, the very person who helped me understand the importance of that message and encouraged me to spread it was none other than my husband, Brad (aka Dr. Bradford Wayne Gibson), who for 16 years studied aging as a medical researcher at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

Anyway, after making my two stacks, I checked with Brad to see whether he agreed with my assessment. He gave me the thumbs up, except when I went to take the �how to stay young forever� books outside for free-cycling, he quickly grabbed them away from me. He said, �Oh, no, you don't. I don�t want ANYONE to read those books� and he tossed them all into the paper recycling bin. Whoa. I was shocked for a moment, but then the importance of his action really struck me. Yes, the irresponsible snake oil about aging that is written and published by people out to make a quick buck really does deserve to be reduced to a pulp. 

On Friday the recycling truck took away all the stay young forever books for processing, and one day soon they�ll have promising new lives as fresh, blank paper.

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How Yoga Fosters Respiratory System Health

by Nina

Big Sur Clouds by Melina Meza

In our post 6 Strategies for Using Yoga to Help with Medical Problems, Baxter and I identified six basic strategies that you can use on their own or in combination to address a wide variety of medical conditions. Today I�m going to conclude my recent series about these individual strategies with this overview how you can use yoga to foster respiratory system health. (See Friday Practical Pointers: Your Respiratory System is more than Just a Pair of Lungs for information about what your respiratory system is and the individual components that comprise it.)

First of all, you can use both asanas and breath practices to maintain the health of your respiratory system overall. In general, asanas that move your spine in all directions of movement, and that stretch and strengthen the muscles all around your upper torso, will help support your respiratory system by keeping respiratory muscles strong and flexible. And breath practices that lengthen your inhalation and exhalation, such as gradual lengthening of equal breath, or that include rapid inhalations and exhalations, like Skull Shining breath, can exercise your breathing muscles even more. 

Yoga asanas, breath awareness, and pranayama can help with mild asthma and COPD by improving breathing efficiency and decreasing inflammation. Baxter�s, students report that their regular yoga practice has been helpful for exercise-induced asthma, which can affect younger adults, but can also arise in older adults.  

CAUTION: Yoga has mixed reviews on its benefits for moderate to severe asthma. For this specific condition, we recommend working with a very experienced teacher.  

Exercise 

In addition to keeping your respiratory muscles strong and flexible, you can use your asana practice to reverse changes to your body due to aging, physical habits, injuries, and scoliosis, that negatively impact your ability to breath. These include structural changes to both muscles and fascia of your chest as well as the chest wall bones and thoracic spine. 

In general, you can reverse changes by: 

1. Improving your posture by strengthening back spinal muscles.

2. Increasing movement in your chest and spine by regularly stretching your chest muscles all directions.

3. Improving the flexibility and strength of your respiratory muscles and fascia by regularly practicing a combination of well-balanced asana sequences and breath practices. 

You can also use asanas to target specific problem areas. For example, if you are developing more rounding of the thoracic spine, adding more dynamic and static back bending postures into your practice can help reduce the rounding. You can also use asanas to strengthen weak chest muscles around your lungs. For example, you can use Plank, Side Plank, and Upward Plank poses to strengthen the muscles around your chest wall and active back bending poses, such as Cobra or Upward-Facing Dog pose, to strengthen your back and front chest muscles.

Breath Awareness 

Your ability to breathe in a healthy way can be compromised by unhealthy breathing patterns, such holding excessive tension in your abdominal muscles. However, by practicing breath awareness with special attention to the movements of your chest and belly, you can learn about your particular breathing patterns and potentially identify any problems. 

In normal, healthy breathing, as you inhale, your chest and ribs will expand slightly and your belly will rise up or bulge forward, and as you exhale, your belly will relax back and your chest and ribs will relax back toward center. Although not common, there are two different breathing patterns that occur in some people that can be problematic:  

Chest Breathing. Instead of your belly expanding on your inhalation and relaxing back on your exhalation, there is no movement in your belly at all. All the movement during respiration is in your chest alone.  

Reverse Breathing. Instead of your belly expanding on your inhalation, it actually sucks in during the inhalation and your chest expands dramatically. And on your exhalation, your belly rises as your chest relaxes.

To observe your own breathing patterns:

1. Start by setting yourself up in a comfortable reclined pose, such as Savasana or Reclined Cobbler�s pose, or a comfortable supported seated pose, such as Easy Sitting pose with your back against the wall.
2. Take a moment to relax completely and breathe naturally, with an easy, relaxed breath.
3. Keeping your breath easy and relaxed, turn your awareness to your chest and belly as you inhale and exhale. Just watch. Is your belly rising/expanding/bulging with your inhalation and relaxing back with your exhalation? Or is something else going on?

If you do identify a problematic breathing pattern�or think that you have�unless you are a very experienced practitioner of pranayama, it�s best for you to work with your yoga teacher or yoga therapist to change your breathing habits. Your present pattern of breathing is likely to be a well-established one. And an expert will not only be able to observe your breathing with a trained eye but will also have techniques available to effectively coach you to change your ingrained habits.

Breath Practices 

A well-rounded breath practice, that includes calming, balancing, and simulating practices, can promote the health of your respiratory system by improving the strength and flexibility or your chest muscles and fascia as well as improving the alignment of your ribs and spine. In general, you�ll benefit from actively challenging your diaphragm with practices that extend the length of the inhalations and exhalations, and that include inhalation and exhalation pausing. 

In addition, recent studies have shown that pranayama is effective in improving lung function in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD. For this condition, equal lengthening of the inhalation and exhalation is recommended. 

Finally, breathing practices that calm your nervous system, such as extending the exhalation or pausing at the end of it, add the benefit of lowering overall stress, which can be particularly helpful to people who are challenged by a respiratory condition.

See Calming Breath Practices We Recommend, Stimulating Breath Practices We Recommend, and Breath Practices for Balance.

Stress Management 

Like the rest of your body, your lungs and the rest of your respiratory system need downtime to rest and repair. In the Rest and Digest state, your respiratory system will get a good rest because you don�t need as much oxygen in this state, so lungs and respiratory system won�t need to work as hard! And, of course, spending time in the Rest and Digest state provides the optimal setting for the system to heal from problems and repair itself. 

So spending time in the Rest and Digest state provides an important break that will foster the health of the entire system. In addition, reducing stress also has positive effect on your immune system, which could lower your chances of getting infections of the respiratory tract, from your nose and mouth all the way into the deep part of your lungs. 

Because many people with chronic respiratory conditions experience ongoing anxiety or other negative emotions related their condition, those who have breathing problems can improve the quality of their lives by practicing stress management. This will help quiet your mind and calm your emotions as well as resting your respiratory system. However, if you have respiratory system problems, meditating on your breath can actually cause stress if you worry about breathing. So if this is the case for you and you want to meditate, we recommend either choosing a different type of focus, such as a mantra, or using a simple guided meditation. 

See Techniques for Supportiing Your Respiratory System for specific recommendations on how to practice.

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Contentment, Happiness, and My Family

by Nina 

�I know what house my house will be. It will be just right for me. And a house just right for me must have a fireplace inside, daisies in the yard, cows in the pasture, and, most important, a friend near by.� �from Boats Finds a House by Mary Chalmers 

When my brother was a kid, his very favorite book �Boats Finds a House� was about cat that embarks on a search for his perfect home. The cat, Boats, has a very specific list what is needed to make him happy. And it takes a long while for Boats to find his house. He looks at many, many houses and can�t find one that�s just right, which makes him feel discouraged and sad. Of course, in the end, with some help from various friends, he does find the perfect house. 

�It really was just the right house for Boats and he lived happily ever after.� 

I�m not sure whether this book spoke so strongly to brother because of who he already was or whether he was actually inspired by the book, but my brother�s life ended up being a lot like Boat�s life. He, too, had a very specific idea of what the perfect house and life would be for him, and he has spent his whole life searching for it, even traveling to many different parts of the world in his search. But, unlike Boats, though he looked and looked, he still hasn�t found his perfect house and life, and now he�s in his early sixties and at a very low point indeed. 

When I was telling a close friend of our family about this, she said, �He�s so much your father.� And I knew immediately what she was talking about, even though my brother would be quite surprised by this comparison. Because even though my father had a very different kind of list of what it would take to make him happy, he, too, became discouraged and sad when his life didn�t turn out the way he�d hoped.

Later on I was musing to myself about how I�d managed to escape all that. You see, while my life didn�t exactly turn out the way I once dreamed it would�whose does?�I am content with and even grateful for how things have unfolded. Did I manage to escape the curse of being weighed down with a list of what it would take to make me happy because I was a girl and my father didn�t burden me with the ambitions and expectations a father has for a son? (In those days, girls were mainly supposed to just �marry well.�) Or, was it simply because my nature was just more like my mother�s than my dad�s?

All I do know is that when I first encountered yoga philosophy, it spoke powerfully to me. I remember one of the first things I read was Desikachar�s translation of the Yoga Sutras and how struck I was by his definition of santosha (one of the niyamas that a serious yoga practitioner should cultivate) and his translation of sutra 2.42.

�Contentment or the ability to be comfortable with what we have and what we do not have.� �TKV Desikachar 

�2.42 From contentment and benevolence of consciousness come supreme happiness.� �Yoga Sutras, trans. by TKV Desikachar 

In Edwin Bryant�s commentary on sutra 2.42, he explains it this way.  

�This sattvic happiness does not depend on external objects, which are vulnerable and fleeting, but is inherent in the mind when it is tranquil and content.�_Edwin Bryant 

And later on, when I carefully read the Bhagavad Gita, its basic message that it is equanimity that leads to happiness became a guiding light to me ever since.  

�For the pleasures that come from the world bear in them sorrows to come. They come and they go, they are transient: not in them do the wise find joy. 

But he who on this earth, before his departure, can endure the storms of desire and wrath, this man is a Yogi, this man has joy.
 
He has inner joy, he has inner gladness, and he has found inner Light.� �Bhagavad Gita 

How I wish my brother could switch from his �Boats Finds a House� philosophy to this one. But I�m afraid the patterns of his belief system (samskaras?) that only having everything right can make you happy is so strong that there is nothing I can do to make it shift. (Ssshh, I�m going to try, though.)

It is too late for my father. But in the last couple of years of his life, after my mother died and he was living in a retirement community, he did seem to reach some measure of peace. One day I drove him by the old house in Berkeley where he had lived with my mother for 15 years after he retired, and said, �I had a pretty good life, didn�t I? I had an interesting career, and a wonderful wife, and I built a beautiful house in Los Angeles�� 

�Yes,� I said. �You did.� 

For more information, see Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness and Yoga Philosophy: Contentment

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Easy Peasy Way to Keep Your Back Happy and Healthy

by Nina

The last few days I've been staying with a friend (a man in his sixties) who doesn�t do yoga, but who is very physically active (hiking, tennis, cycling, etc.) and who also sits at a desk. While we were hiking together  we talked about his back, and what he could do to keep it healthy. I said, I do have one simple suggestion, and I told him about the passive backbend that Timothy recommended in his post Cultivating Healthy Posture with a Simple Restorative Pose. When he asked about buying a prop, I said that I was sure I could find some things in the house we could use. And as soon as we got home, he brought out a rolled up blanket to support his chest and I got a towel from the bathroom to put under his head, and I set him up in the pose for 5 minutes. He loved it! So now he�s going to try to do it on a regular basis, especially on days when he spends a lot of time in front of the computer (he works mostly from home these days). And I asked him to keep me updated on his practice ad the results he sees from it. In the meantime, for all of you out there who may not have read Timothy�s original post (see Cultivating Healthy Posture with a Simple Restorative Pose)  and our post with four different versions of passive backbend (see Featured Pose: Supported Backbend), I thought today I�d remind you about this very simple, very pleasant way of maintaining back health and/or finding relief from mild low back pain. I myself practice it about five days a week, cause, yeah, I�m a writer.

Happy practicing, Bob!

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What to Do When You're Stressed or Angry (or Both)

by Nina

On Peralta Avenue by Nina Zolotow

I have been kind of stressed out lately. Not sleeping well and that kind of stuff. That�s pretty normal for me when I�m worrying about things�personal stuff, family, stuff, the recent tragedy in Orlando, and don�t even get me started on politics. But I�ve also been angry, which is quite unusual for me, and, wow, that�s a really unpleasant feeling, I have to say. Of course, I�ve been doing my go-to 20-minute Legs Up the Wall pose at the end of every practice to try to manage my stress levels. Then on Wednesday I decided I needed more serious treatment, so I took my own advice and did a full-length supported inversion practice, just like the one I wrote about in All About Supported Inversions. And you know what? It was amazing. There was a gradually building up of the effects of the poses so that by the time I got the ending Legs Up the Wall pose, I felt completely different than after just doing that pose solo.

The post All About Supported Inversions that I did on that practice (and those poses) was some time ago, so I just wanted to take a moment to recommend it to you in case you missed it (or forgot about it). So if you're feeling stressed or angry or both, give the practice (or part of it) a try.

But keep in mind, the purpose of using your yoga practice to find equanimity during difficult times isn�t just to make yourself feel better so you can ignore the bad feelings or avoiding taking unpleasant actions. The purpose of equanimity for us householders is to bring yourself to a point where you can think more clearly and not be so reactive. Then you have the opportunity to act in line with your values and ethics. 

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Techniques for Improving Balance

by Nina

Shawn Brow Age 57

For those of you who are new to yoga�and to balance poses�we�re recommending a few basic techniques and principles to get you started. To safely explore balancing poses you have never done before, start out by practicing the versions that use props or a wall for support before moving on to the classic pose. If you�re fearful, you can practice any pose with your back to a wall that you can lean back onto if you feel yourself losing balance. 

For those of you who have already mastered the basic balancing poses, if you want to keep improving your balance, it�s necessary to keep challenging yourself. So our list of techniques include several recommendations for you that will allow you keep progressing in your ability to balance for years to come! 

Whatever your current level is, you should practice poses that challenge your balance with a non-judgmental attitude, as negative self-talk can sabotage you. As you start to practice, notice your thoughts. If they tend to be negative, such as �I suck at Tree pose,� try consciously taking a more neutral approach, such as, �Let�s see what I can do today�� And keep in mind that even if you fall (safely, of course!), you are still benefitting tremendously by practicing your balancing poses, so practicing is your real aim, not staying upright! 

How Often to Practice. Since you typically only practice a few balance poses in an active practice, it�s a good idea to include one or more balance poses in every active practice that you do. However, too avoid injuries from overuse, make sure you vary which balance poses you practice. For example, if you�re working on Tree pose, do that only every other time and try a version of Warrior 3 on alternate days. 

How Long to Hold the Poses. Hold your balance poses until you notice your leg or whichever body part is supporting you is quivering, and then try to hold 2-3 seconds longer. Rest a few seconds before repeating on the second side. If you are only able to do 10 to 30-second holds, rest briefly after complete both sides, and repeat the pose a second time. Over time gradually work your way up to holds of 1 to 2 minutes. 

Balance Your Practice. For improving balance, it�s important to practice a wide variety of balance poses as well as strength, flexibility, and agility poses. So be sure to practice a wide variety of poses throughout the week and month rather than just doing poses every day. Besides the standing balance poses, we recommend practicing yoga balancing poses where you balance on other parts of your body. Try Side Plank pose variations to work on hands and the sides of your feet. Try Boat pose variations to work on your buttocks area. Try Hunting Dog pose to work on your shins as well as your hands. And to keep your mind fully engaged and avoid relying on your body memory of practicing your poses in the past, vary the order in which you do your poses as well. 

Mindfulness. Because maintaining awareness while you balance�rather that just throwing yourself into a balance pose and hoping for the best�is what will help you improve, you should mainly practice poses that are accessible enough so you can practice them mindfully. As you practice, focus on your sensations of being on and off balance and making whatever subtle adjustments are necessary to steady yourself. As you make progress with the accessible poses, you can gradually add in a few more challenging poses or variations. 

And to develop your proprioception, take time to really feel your own alignment in every single pose that you do. Are you arms even in Warrior 2? Are you knees actually straight in your standing poses? Is your head really aligned directly over your torso? Then take your proprioception to another level by working with more subtle alignment cues. For example, you could work with your shoulder blades, your collarbones, your inner thighs, or something even more esoteric like your psoas muscles. Sometimes there is an area you are not used to even sensing and, at first, it will be hard to feel something there. But the more you bring your mind to it, the easier it will be to sense that area and eventually to move it. 

Mental Focus. Practicing balance poses trains your mind as you return your focus again and again to maintaining balance. You notice shifting sensations�the feeling of being on or off balance�and when extraneous thoughts take you away from your movements. However, if you are having trouble focusing, you can meditate and practice structured breath practices (see Chapter x) to improve your mental focus in general, benefitting your balance both inside and outside the yoga room. 

Challenging Yourself. It�s important to continue to challenge your balance and keep moving to the edge of stability where you almost�or do the first few times�lose your balance. You can do this by varying: the poses you do, how you use your vision, the type of surface you balance on, and the amount of distraction that�s in your environment. 

1. Varying Poses. After starting with basic static poses and dynamic sequences, add more challenging poses and practices. From there, search out new poses or variations, make up new versions of existing balance poses, or even invent your own balance poses. Some guidelines: 1) After you master simple poses, progress to more complex poses or sequences of poses. This adds new variables for your mind and body, from simple to complex. Try more advanced balancing poses that you learn about in a an intermediate/advanced yoga classes. Or, after learning two balance poses independently, such as Tree pose and Warrior 3 pose, you could create a dynamic sequence that combines the two. 2) After you master familiar poses, progress to inventing new versions of them that challenge your balance. For example, you could modify Tree pose by shifting your hip toward your standing leg and tipping your torso and arms to your lifted leg side. 3) After you master static balance poses, progress to dynamic balance poses, such as dynamic Warrior 3 pose, to challenge yourself with balance in motion. 
2. Removing or Changing Vision. After you�re comfortable in a balance pose with eyes open, you can take vision out of the equation. This helps improve both proprioception and exteroception as you have to rely on your internal sense of where you are in space to balance, as well as your vestibular system. Try practicing in a darkened room or with your eyes completely closed. You can also change your vision by keeping your eyes open but changing the position of your head, by looking up or looking down, and by turning your head. 
3. Vary the Surface You Balance On. Once you are comfortable balancing on a stable surface, such as wood floor or a thin yoga mat, gradually move on to more and more unstable surfaces. Some possibilities include a rug or carpet, a foam mat, a foam block, and even a firm mattress. If it�s possible to practice yoga outside, try some poses on the grass or sand. We also recommend practicing on an uneven surface, such as with half your foot on your mat and the other half directly on the floor. 
4.  Changing Your Environment. When you�re ready for real-world challenges, you can try practicing in a distracting environment, such as at a park or at the beach. You can also create a distracting environment in your yoga room by practicing with a talkative yoga friend or let some children or pets �help� you practice. You can also add �cognitive distraction drills� to your practice by chanting or even tossing a small ball or bean bag around while you also balance. 

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