Yoga, Pain Management, and Sound Therapy

by Ram

Ann Dyer, Yoga Teacher and Musician, by Melina Meza

Yoga stress management practices, including meditation, focused relaxation, and relaxing asanas, help manage stress, which can have a feedback effect on improving pain. In my post How and Why Yoga Helps with Pain, I highlighted the benefits of yoga in curbing pain. Yoga (asanas, meditation, and pranayama) helps in the following ways: 

• Triggers increased flow of oxygen to the brain and muscle tissues that improves energy levels and sense of wellbeing.
• Helps to release muscle tension and stretch the muscles thereby reducing the intensity of the pain
• Creates more mental clarity thereby decreasing the level of perceived suffering
• Helps manage stress that can have a feedback effect on improving pain.
• In animal models and in humans, studies show that the practice of yoga reduces pain perception. 

In today’s article, I present yet another evidence-based study that describes the benefit of another Yoga relaxation technique, the effect of sound therapy in reducing the pain response. In several yoga studios, the practice of asans is accompanied by soft sounds of music. The sounds could be from an audio setting or it could be a live music. Several Bay Area yoga studios also feature soft music/kirtans/mantra recordings/or live chanting while the asana class is in progress. In some cases, teachers start and end their practice with the chanting of Aum, an invocation to Patanjali or Ganesh, a Peace (shanti) mantra, etc. For a moment, keep aside your religious affiliation and recall just what those sounds did to your body, mind, and intellect. If you are unable to recall, the next time you are in a class where the asana practice is accompanied by some sound, be more attentive and notice what it does to you before and after the class. 

In my own home practice, I always like to play some soft music as I go through my Yoga routine. When I hear the mantras or sounds of Aum or some musical sounds of nature, a sense of calmness prevails, the chattering in my mind stops, and I feel more attentive and motivated. This state of the body and mind helps as I go through my asana practice. Did you know that since time immemorial, sound was used as a healing tool in almost all of the spiritual traditions? Be it the soft temple bells, chants of Aum, notes from various musical instruments, resonance from the tuning forks, crystal bowls, or Tibetan bowls, among others, sounds have been an integral part of the healing power of not just Hindu or shamanic culture but other traditions as well. My grandfather and his colleagues practiced Sandhya-vandhana (salutations at dawn and dusk that included asanas, mudras, meditation, and pranayama), either at the temple courtyard, in the farm, or by the riverside so they could tune in to the gentle sounds. 

The basic principle of sound/music therapy is that the tune, articulation, pitch, and the arrangement of the musical notes have a major impact on a person’s body, mind, and intellect. Pleasant and relaxing sounds shift the predominant beta brain waves (which keeps us aroused, alert, but also stressed) to alpha waves that puts the individual in the state of “Zone/Flow,” characterized by a state of improved focus, concentration and performance (see Positive Psychology vs. Yoga Philosophy). This is also the state characterized by the release of feel-good brain chemicals, such as endorphins, noradrenaline, and dopamine. Sounds alter the energy patterns in the body and mind, facilitate the connection between mind-body-intellect, and transform the individual into a high state of consciousness. This is why sound therapy is highly recommended for panic attacks and anxiety. Sound therapy serves as a tonic to the brain and is used frequently in the treatment of depression and pain as well.

In a recent study entitled “Complimentary effect of yogic sound resonance relaxation technique in patients with common neck pain," a group of scientists decided to investigate the role of a yogic relaxation technique called mind sound resonance technique (MSRT) as a form of non-surgical management for chronic neck pain. MSRT involves paying attention to the vibrations and resonance from chanting the syllables A, U, M, (Aum/Om) and the Mahamrityunjaya mantra sounds, with the eyes closed. It can be practiced in a supine or sitting posture. The chants are an alternate combination of loud chants and mental sounds repeated three times.

The sample size consisted of 60 literate patients in the age group of 20–70 years with no previous exposure to yoga. All of them suffered from chronic neck pain due to spasm (myalgia), strain of the neck muscles, ligament strain, or cervical spondylosis. Patients were randomized into two groups of 30 each using a computer-generated algorithm. The group included 28 females and 32 males. Both groups received conventional physiotherapy for 10 minutes and ultrasound massage for 10 minutes. Following these procedures, the control group had a non-guided supine rest for 20 minutes. The Yoga group received the mind sound resonance technique (MSRT) through a prerecorded audio tape played with head phones for a period of 20 minutes. The chants alternated from loud notes (Ahata) to unheard sounds (Anahata-mental notes). Instructions were provided to relax, focus, and concentrate on the sounds. The sessions lasted for 10 days. 

Data was collected before the onset of the study and on the final day. Several parameters for pain were measured. Improvements in neck muscle tenderness, neck disability, and movements of the neck were observed in both groups. The MSRT-yoga group showed significant reduction in pain (by 95.5%), tenderness (by 92.82%), and neck disability (91.32%). The cervical spinal flexibility, movements of the neck, (flexion, extension, lateral flexion—to right and left—and lateral rotation—right and left) all improved significantly in the MSRT group compared to the control group. 

This study reminded me of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s impressive articles on mindfulness and pain management all of which point out to the fact that mindfulness strategies including but not limited to relaxing and meditative sounds serve as an appropriate adjunctive treatment for chronic pain by lowering stress, reducing pain response, improving mental emotions, and physical flexibility. So if you wish to see health benefits from your yoga practice, you could complement your practice by  listening to or chanting  soothing/relaxing sounds.

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New Photo Galleries

by Nina

Bhavani Cooper, Age 56
barbara-e-cooper.healthcoach1.integrativenutrition.com

Our first photo contest (see Photo Contest and Friday Q&A: Why Only Women in Your Photo Contest?) has turned out to be a huge success. I have to say, I’m just thrilled. It’s taking me some time to go through all the photos submitted so far, but there are going to be a large number of prize-winning photos for sure!

So I’ve decided to create some new pages on the blog that are photo galleries of the prize-winning photos, one for women and one for men (that second photo contest is coming soon).

See Photo Gallery: Women Over 50 and Photo Gallery: Men Over 50.

The only reason I’m creating two separate pages for the genders is that I’m concerned that having too many photographs on a single page might cause technical problems on the blog. Later on, I may divide them up in some other way. Actually if you have suggestions for a better way of splitting them up, let me know.

Richard Rosen, Age 67, photographed by Melina Meza
richardrosenyoga.com

So far, I’ve only put up a few photos on these pages, but you can keep checking back. Basically, if your photo or photos “win,” you’ll eventually be in the gallery. If not, you’ll receive an email or Facebook reply from me explaining why I’ve rejected your photo. 

Reasons for rejection typically include:

• Photo is out of focus, partly out of focus, or too small (low resolution)
• Background is cluttered or unattractive
• The lighting is poor
• There is a very tiny image of you in a big landscape (that won't work on the blog)
• Body parts are cropped off (feet not showing, fingertips not in the frame, etc.)
• Face is shaded and dark, while background is bright (wearing hats definitely causes this problem as does strong back lighting) or your face doesn’t show at all (exceptions will be made for certain poses)
• Alignment of the pose looks unhealthy in my opinion, for example, the head and neck are not in line with the spine

Although I don’t by any means require professional photos, typically a quick snapshot done with your phone, unless it is really special, is not going to make the grade. So if you want your images to be seriously considered, take some time in creating them. Arrange the setting and move that plastic water bottle somewhere else. Have someone look at your alignment and give you some cues. Take multiple shots to get one good one. Take off your hat and sunglasses. Smile. Like these:

Judith Sims-Barlow, Age 72

Nancy LaNasa, Age 60

And if I reject your photo, you can always try again with a different photo. There are no deadlines for these contests.

But if you are interested in having your photo taken by our staff photographer, yoga teacher Melina Meza, she is available for hire. You can see her photographs of yoga practitioners on Flickr. To contact her, to the Contact page on her web site melinameza.com for her email information.

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Balance Pose of the Week: Loop the Leg

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Friday Q&A: Why Only Women in Your Photo Contest?

Joy Sassoon, Age 60
by Tanya Constantine

Q: Why aren't you including men in your photo contest?

A: The simple answer is that if you scan through the posts on our blog, you will see a preponderance of photos of a white man in his 50s (Baxter Bell). So, to start, I wanted to get a bit more diversity on the blog and I decided to start with women (of all colors and body types). 

Karen Moore by Melina Meza

Secondly, older women in the yoga world—and in society in general—tend to get overlooked, much more than older men. There are lots of photographs out there of older yoga male teachers, and not so many of the females. In general, older women often comment that they feel "invisible," and older men appear as much as 10 times more frequently than older women in media (see The Case of the Disappearing Women Over 40: Anti-Aging and Symbolic Annihilation). Because I'm in the position to do something about that (rather than just ranting about it), I decided it was time to do my bit. And guess what? I posted the photo above of Joy Sassoon on our Facebook page, and it is literally going viral. I think that speaks to the hunger out there for more representation of this group.

However, there have been some complaints about lack of equality in this contest, so because I've received an outpouring of photographs of older woman doing yoga, I've decided that after I'm able to sort through all those photos and have posted a significant number of them, I will open the contest to men. Stay tuned!

Vincent, Age 51
Copyright by Sara Bennett 2013

—Nina

P.S. I received the following comment on Tuesday's post: 

"Although I love the women models I do not like the listing of their ages. If you added a caption with the age of all your models, it would be more balanced. Noting only the ages of women, and only older women, is feeding the 'anti aging' paradigm we would like to avoid."

This comment confused me. I thought women proudly stating their age was a good thing, as we are often taught to lie about our ages or be ashamed of being older. What do you think? Should I include the ages or not? (Of course, if I continue including the women's ages, I would also include the ages of men whose photos I post after that contest begins. I won't be posting Baxter's age on every single photo of Baxter, however, because I considered the photos of people demonstrating our poses to be in a different category.)

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Letting Things Come and Go: A Journey To Motherhood

by Leza Lowitz

The doctor sucks in his breath, folds his hands over his chest. He leans back in his chair and tells me that my eggs are too old, that IVF will probably fail.

“I’d like to try anyway,” I say.

To my surprise, he flat out refuses. Perhaps this famous Tokyo fertility clinic doesn’t want to add any failures to their high success rate. In America, I think, they’d keep taking your money until you ran out. But here in Tokyo, the doctor says no. And no means no.

“Don’t waste your money, time, or energy,” he says, not unkindly.

“What are her options?” my Japanese husband asks anyway, catching my dejected look.

“She could always try a donor egg,” the doctor says, shuffling papers on his desk and glancing up at the clock.

There’s just one problem. Donor eggs are illegal in Japan. After ten years of trying for a child, I know I’m at the end of the road. But I’m not someone who gives up easily. My husband reminds me that walking away from the fight is sometimes a sign of strength, not weakness. The Japanese have a term for it: the nobility of failure.

You hold your head high as you walk away from the fight. Throwing down your sword is a way to take back your own power. When one has tried one’s best, “failure” is noble, dignified. I also understand that “failure” is sometimes just a prelude to success. So I hold up my head, try to be dignified. I try to embody the samurai spirit. I tell my husband: Just keep me away from anything sharp.

Letting Go

I get out my yoga mat and I practice. I breathe out the frustration, the disappointment, the pain. I breathe in the dream of our child, our beautiful child. I wonder where he or she is. I had faith that I could conceive naturally, but that didn’t happen. I still feel that my child is out there. I just have to keep searching until I find him.

As in many days over the years, I ask myself questions many mothers never consider. Why do I want to be a mother, anyway? I meditate on the answer. I want to experience another kind of love, something beyond what I know or can even imagine. Mother love. I want to experience this kind of earth-shattering, unconditional love of a mother for her child. The oneness.

But it wasn’t as if I’d put my life on hold. I’d written some books, opened up a yoga studio in a foreign country. Maybe it was because I’d opened a yoga studio that I’d failed to conceive. If I’d had a child, I’d certainly have been too busy to care for the students who depended on me there. We’d created a community, a family together. We mothered each other.

Perhaps my body was protecting itself. Giving birth might have been too risky for me, with my very slow heart rate, which I’d had since birth. I, or the child, might have died in childbirth. The doctor said these things. My mind chatters on and on. I have to stop these endless wanderings. So I sit and close my eyes, focus on my breath. I practice Tonglen, the Tibetan Buddhist practice of “giving and taking.”

Tonglen is one of the best methods I know of cracking open the heart. To help get me outside my own “story” and “suffering,” I practice taking away someone else’s pain. I breathe it in and send them the wish for happiness and peace.

In the meditation, I picture people I know—my mother, father, friends—and see them in pain. With each breath, I imagine taking the pain into my heart, transforming it with love in an explosion of light, destroying it forever. Then I send them the wish for happiness and freedom, and shower them with anything that will make them happy. I make an offering of this wish—sending them their favorite foods, their loved ones, a beautiful sunset. Whatever they love.

Once I can hold my concentration, the meditation is not so difficult. It’s a joy to help those I love and care for. But send those who’ve hurt us the wish for happiness? That’s a bit more challenging. Still, I persevere.

Next, I picture someone I barely know—someone who has served me in a cafe, or my local bus driver. Can we care about someone we don’t know at all, barely even notice in our daily lives? Can we take on their pain and suffering, try to take it away? It’s a powerful practice.

Lastly, I practice taking in all the pain in the world, and transforming it into happiness. Little by little, I find that my own life becomes happier and somehow free. In my meditations and in my yoga practice, I try to listen within. 

Soldiering On

Then I go online and research adoption in Japan. I discover that the adoption of adults is common practice for financial or business reasons, but adoption of children is rare. The number of waiting children is small compared to other countries. Foreigners are outsiders, so the chances of a successful placement seem slim, even with a Japanese partner. People do manage to adopt here, though. In 2004, family courts recognized 322 adoptions of children under the age of six, and 998 adoptions of children over six.

That’s 1,320 adoptions, with less than half of those between children and parents who have no blood connection. In other words, most adoptions are still within the family. In the U.S., there are approximately 127,000 annual adoptions. 1.7 million households have an adopted child.

We decide to apply, though the odds are daunting. To add to the challenge, of course, everything must be discussed in Japanese. I appreciate that Shogo is a translator and that he has the patience of a saint. I also appreciate that in some ways I am probably only going to catch half of what is happening. So I won’t know how much I am up against, and that’s a definite plus.

My yoga has taught me the value of process, of being in the moment. We just take each step as it comes, breath by breath. At forty-four and forty-eight, our ages make us low priority. But my age also makes me more determined. If I’m lucky, I have around ten thousand days left to live. How do I want to spend them? Though I love Shogo deeply, I want my world to be bigger than just us two. Besides, we have nothing to lose.

When our application is approved, I am overjoyed, and surprised. Could our dream finally be coming true? We wait for a placement, and I practice and practice. If it is meant to be, it will happen.

At the studio, I have students do Sun Salutations blindfolded so they don’t look outward. So they can look, and listen, to the teacher within. It’s unnerving, and powerful. How much of what we do is dictated by what we’re told, or what’s expected of us, or what we think others will approve of?

I put the blindfold on myself. I forge onward, keeping my ears tuned to that faint inner voice that gets louder and louder in the listening. I keep my ears open for the voice of my child. Trusting. Letting go. Trusting. Hoping. Letting go. I watch the thoughts come and go. I do my practice throughout. I remember the words Krishna says to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita:

That one is dear to me who runs not after the pleasant or away from the painful, grieves not, lusts not, but lets things come and go as they happen.

And then, six months later, my husband and I get the call we’ve been waiting for. A placement. A two-year-old boy.

This time, when I sit down in meditation, instead of waiting to hear his voice, I speak directly to him.

“Hold on,” I say. “We’re coming.”

Leza Lowitz is an accidental global citizen, yoga studio owner, and multi-genre author of over seventeen books. Her book Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By, is an Amazon best-seller. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Motherlode blog, Yoga Journal, Yoga International, Shambhala Sun, The Best Buddhist Writing, The Huffington Post, and The Japan Times.

The above is excerpted, in slightly different form, from her forthcoming memoir, Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras about Lowitz’s journey to motherhood over two oceans, two decades, and two thousand yoga poses. See Stone Bridge Press for further information.

Leza's Young Adult novel in verse about Japan's March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Up from the Sea, will be published by Crown Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House) in 2016. Please visit: www.lezalowitz.com.

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Finding Your Teacher: Georg Feuerstein Interviewed by Richard Rosen

by Nina

Ellen Fein, Age 65
Breathe2Change.com

When Georg Feuerstein died in 2012, I wrote an appreciation of him, Georg Feuerstein, 1947-2012, saying how much his work meant to me and how, even though I’d never met him, I considered him one of my teachers. Now I have just learned of the existence of a very long, unpublished interview with him that Richard Rosen did way back in 1996. Richard has now published the interview in full on his website richardrosenyoga.com, but he has give me permission to include excerpts from it our blog.

Here’s the first excerpt, which discusses how to find a good teacher and when you need to walk away.

RR: The teachings are suited to the capacity of the student rather than just give a blanket teaching to a large group of people. That’s one of the reasons why you want your own teacher.

GF: So the teacher who knows you will also know where your boundaries are, where your limitations are and he will constantly prick the balloon. Constantly, if he is a good teacher. At the same time, if he is a good teacher, he will also provide enough nurturing for you to continue with this ordeal. It is a rite of passage.

RR: You can’t just pull out the stops and let the person flounder.

GF: You have to know what you’re doing, and I think the bad teachers, of which there are many in evidence, are the ones who just pull the rug and then say, “oh, tough luck.” And leave the person to their own devices. At the Foundation we get people who have kundalini problems, genuine kundalini problems because it was awakened but then the teacher didn’t see it through. Because they are not capable of seeing it through. It is very easy to do. Awaken something, and then where is the help? This particular danger in teaching has always existed. I translated a little
passage from the Kula-Arnava Tantra which talks all about bad teachers, teachers who cheat, pretend, etc. They are in the majority. 

But there is also the misconception I think that we have in the west which I often hear when I go out and talk to students, that there are not enough good teacher. “Where is my good teacher?” “There are so many good students, but not enough good teachers.” My view on that is always the same. Very forcefully I tell them that there are a hundred times more good teachers than there are disciples. But if you don’t see, the teacher could stand right beside you and you wouldn’t know he is your teacher. Your own delusions are in the way. So if we have a bad teacher, who is to blame? Us. No one else.

RR: For not being discriminating.

GF: Exactly. I think to approach a teacher we need to do as we do with everything else. When we buy a car we go through the works, not just look at the color. You find out before you put the money down. Same with a teacher. Find out, and then even when you have committed to a certain degree you find out some more for a period of time to see, okay, how is the teacher responding to me. How am I responding to that teacher? Is there a connection? And so on. And the teacher does the same.

RR: Can you give some criteria people can use to look for a teacher? In deciding on and choosing a good teacher. Are there specific things to look for? Or is it more of a feel?

GF: No, I think people like Wilbur and others have put a list together. Frances Vaughn also I think. Of who are the teachers who qualify as good teachers. I don’t recall all the criteria, but I think one criterion for me personally would be is this teacher part of a recognized tradition and lineage? In other words, who is that teacher’s teacher? Very important. Because, if you have a wild card, you don’t know.

RR: No responsibility to anything.

GF: Yes. There is no environment for them to have to prove themselves. They are only talking to the student, which is a one-way street. So that is one thing. To look at who has made that teacher. Who is he responsible to? The second criterion I would say, what are your instincts about that teacher? What is the gut reaction? If there is doubt about the teacher’s integrity, if there is doubt about ability, why commit? At the same time you have to make sure it is not your own stuff that you are reacting to. It is a very subtle thing.

I would also look at the biblical saying about the fruits, “by their fruits you shall know them.” Talk to others. If there is confusion, chaos and pain around a teacher, it is likely that the teacher is the cause of that pain and confusion.

RR: It all flows from the source.

GF: Yes. Around great teachers there will always be people who are confused and in pain and all that, because they don’t discriminate. They allow people to come in whoever they are if they have the karma to be there. And they help to whatever extent they can, but you will also find in a group, in a community like that, people of worth. Who have passed through the process. 

The other thing I have done—my whole experience with Da Free John, before I set out on this adventure, which I knew was totally crazy because it would challenge me in every conceivable way—but I entered it open-eyed. I understood I was doing this for a very specific reason, in my case. I wanted to have this confrontation with a very strong teacher who would challenge me in ways that no one has challenged me before. But I made a deal with myself that after a certain period of time, a number of years, whatever, you look at the situation. 

If there is a sense of basically feeling good about the involvement, even if there is pain, you decide to renew your contract with yourself in a way. But if you find it has just become a nightmare or you feel you haven’t grown in the preceding period, it is time to leave, say goodbye, it’s not for me. This is what happened in my case. I felt I wasn’t growing anymore. I had grown for four or five years and then I felt I reached a plateau having to do with my perception of the teacher. There was a level of trust I couldn’t reach. 

So when that happens, when you can’t open up to the teacher on that deep inner level, there is no way that relationship can flourish. No way. Transmission will not continue. I realized that this is what was happening. I had to say goodbye. I think anyone who is wise will look at their life after a period of time and say, “how am I doing?” Rather than just go with the status quo and hope for the best. There has to be an intelligent process of self-examination, which has to be continuous anyway.

RR: Although difficult to sustain in an environment like that. When you get close to someone like that, it is easy to give yourself up and give yourself over and stop thinking for yourself.

GF: That then is the childish response. A good teacher will not tolerate it. Because you always have to think for yourself. Always. You always have to make your own mistakes. The teacher can point out to you that you are about to make a mistake but if you feel you have to make it, to find out for yourself, you have to do it.

To read more of this interview, see Interview with Georg Feuerstein.

Richard Rosen is a yoga teacher and writer from Berkeley, California. He is President of the board of the Yoga Dana Foundation, which supports Northern California teachers bringing yoga to underserved communities. Richard has written three books for Shambhala: The Yoga of Breath: A Step-by-Step Guide to Pranayama (2002), Pranayama: Beyond the Fundamentals (2006), and Original Yoga: Rediscovering Traditional Practices of Hatha Yoga (2012). He also recorded a 7-disc set of instructional CDs for Shambhala titled The Practice of Pranayama: An In-Depth Guide to the Yoga of Breath (2010). For more information about Richard and the workshops he teaches internationally, see http://www.richardrosenyoga.com/.

Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. became interested in Yoga in his early teens and studied Yoga philosophy and history ever after that . He did his postgraduate studies in England and authored over 50 books—not all on Yoga. His major works are: The Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra (Shambhala 2011), The Yoga Tradition (Hohm Press 2008), Yoga Morality (Hohm Press, 2007), The Deeper Dimension of Yoga (Shambhala), and The Bhagavad-Gītā: A New Translation (Shambhala 2011). For more about Georg and the work that is continued by Brenda Feuerstein, see traditionalyogastudies.com.

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Photo Contest!

by Nina

Ann Wackelin's Class of Women Ages 50-62, Sweden
yoga_pearl on Instagram

Our Editor-in-Chief (me) has decided that we need some photos of older women doing yoga for our blog!

It was a post on Facebook by yoga teacher and blogger Linda Sama Karl that got me started on this. She was pointing out something I already knew, which was that while a significant proportion of the population who is doing yoga in the west consists of middle-aged and older women, this group tends to get overlooked by the media. In real life, I see beautiful older women doing yoga—beautifully—in every single yoga class that I attend. But, as we all know, images of older women doing yoga—or anything for that matter—don’t sell products, or so the received wisdom tells us. So we rarely see images that look like us in yoga magazines, yoga videos, articles in other magazines about yoga, or ads for yoga products. But, guess what? I’m actually not trying to sell anything here except the tools and philosophy of Yoga for Healthy Aging. So I can do whatever I want. And Linda’s post got me thinking that it would do us all some good, young and old alike, to have some great images of older women doing yoga out there, both on this blog and on Facebook. 

Second, you may have noticed that the photos on the blog aren’t very diverse (no offense, Baxter). That’s not because I hadn’t thought about having women on the blog, it’s just because I’ve been a bit lazy—or perhaps just too busy —about getting those photographs. I’m not a good photographer myself, but I did have Brad take a few photographs of Sandy Carmellini, age 53, a while back. 

So even though I have really wanted more diversity (including of race and body type), I just never got around to doing much about it. Now that Facebook discussion has jolted me out of my complacency and given me the idea that I could ask you—our readers—to help me with this project. What do you think? Want to join in by contributing one or more photos?

To be eligible, your photo must meet the following specifications:

1. Portray a woman or women over 50 doing a yoga pose (of any level of difficulty) or meditating. Any body type or race (diversity is encouraged!).
2. Be a digital photograph (or scan) in a reasonably high resolution and in focus.
3. Have a reasonably attractive physical surrounding (either outside or inside). So no messy rooms, even if we sometimes do yoga in messy rooms. Pets are allowed (though I have a limit on how many cats I can take). Urban environments are as good as nature shots.
4. If the photo is a single woman doing a yoga pose, the alignment must be one that I consider to be healthy. And no body parts can be cropped off, unless in a super artistic fashion.
5. Be aesthetically pleasing.
6. You must either be in the photo or have taken the photo (that way, I can have your official permission to use it).

Here are some examples of winning photos submitted to me recently after I left a comment on a Facebook post saying I realized I needed some good photos of older women doing yoga. 

Tina Kaufman, Age 70

Linda Sama Karl, Age 59 metta-yoga.com

To submit your photos, you can either email them to me (see Contact Us) or submit via our Yoga for Healthy Aging Facebook Page. There is no deadline because you will not be competing against each other. Multiple submissions allowed. All photos that meet the specifications will be winners!

The prizes? I will use these photos in our posts, with your name, age, and a web address, if desired. I hope there will be a huge number of prizes.

And you should feel free to “borrow” these photographs and give them even more exposure, as long as you give appropriate credits.

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