Finding Youth in Yoga
March 2016
“Namaste, Namaste, Namaste…” Megas MacDonald concludes her senior chair yoga class by exchanging positive vibes with her students. She has been teaching this class for a few years at River Road Park and Recreation District, along with couples yoga, hatha yoga, and women’s yoga. However, MacDonald’s chair yoga class does not mirror the traditional dim lit and quiet vibe her other classes might feature.
Instead, the room is filled with light and laughter as the seniors tease one another. MacDonald explains that this is her favorite aspect when teaching senior chair yoga, highlighting that “having the positive attitude to do it, makes all the difference.” Twice a week she has the opportunity to improve these seniors’ lives, by providing them with motivation, community, and humor.
Less than a decade ago she found herself in a similar position as these students she now teaches. After a series of life-changes, mainly blaming menopause, MacDonald decided she wasn’t happy about the new issues she was facing. She decided to face her challenges head on and began searching for an outlet that could provide her with some relief.
Her mom was a yoga instructor for many years, and after flipping through some of her mother’s old yoga books she was inspired to give the exercise a try. Seven years ago she decided to take her first class at River Road. The class completely adjusted her mindset and aided in improving the changes she was facing due to aging. Yoga is commonly known to exercise both the mind and the body so it served as an excellent solution to ease the struggles of aging. At 52 years old she decided to pursue getting a yoga certificate so she could share her passion. She then began teaching, slowly taking on a variety of classes, including chair yoga for seniors.
MacDonald enjoys sharing her knowledge with these seniors and expresses how she has gained knowledge from them, through teaching the class, as well. She makes a conscious effort to create conversation in the class and continually asks questions. This input from her students has allowed her to design the class towards the seniors by catering to their strengths and weaknesses. After adding new exercises and techniques to the curriculum the seniors have shared that their strength has improved; some even bragging that they are now able to walk without a cane.
Since starting yoga, MacDonald says she is now more in tune with herself and has no plan to turn away from the practice. She has learned a new kind of patience from these seniors, in addition to empathy, generosity of spirit, aging, wisdom, and what she believes to be most important, “not to take yourself too seriously.”