Back in the early ‘70s, my steadfastly moderate and etiquette-appropriate mother replaced her late-afternoon naptime with an edgy new routine. She started doing yoga poses on the living room carpet, practicing her downward dogs, cobras, bridges and shoulder stands to feel regenerated and restored.
Back then, yoga was considered some sort of mysterious quackery from the Far East. But time has done its work and yoga has earned its place at the Western buffet of prescriptive options to help prevent and treat common ailments.
This is old news to longtime yoga practitioners who know that yoga improves strength, flexibility and balance while providing mental and spiritual benefits like enhanced awareness and well-being.
Just the Facts
One study found that yoga can be a viable intervention for back pain and may be used in place of painkillers (2017 Annals of Internal Medicine). Another study published in 2017 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine determined that military veterans — who often suffer from more health complications than civilians — benefited from yoga practice for chronic pain. Also, research published in the Journal of Education and Health Promotion found that participants who practiced one hour of yoga for six days a week over three months had significant improvement in their cholesterol levels. Inflammation, blood sugar, blood pressure and other heart disease risks were also reduced.
Research has further shown that yoga can ease anxiety, depression and insomnia. Scientists are finally acknowledging that yoga not only complements Western medicine but may also provide more sustainable healing than prescription drugs.
Just ask my mother. She recently turned 90 but still eases into her favorite yoga stretches that relieve her stiff neck and back due to spinal stenosis.
”I adopted yoga into my lifestyle because it has always made me feel good. It restores my energy and flexibility. I think it even makes me look better because of improved blood flow,” she says. “Jazzercise, aerobicize and other fitness fads came and went for me, but yoga wasn’t a passing phase.”
Yes, Goat Yoga is a Thing
By Estelle Rodis-Brown
It may be a trend, but goat yoga seems to have staying power, based on the number of classes that keep filling up with eager participants. A natural skeptic, I had to check it out for myself.
The session I attended took place outdoors at Rosie Standish’s bucolic Field of Blooms farm in Mantua in Portage County. The setting was an expansive grassy lawn among flower fields and a swan-guarded pond with an elegant 1880-era Victorian home as a backdrop. Six of Abbe Turner’s milk goats from nearby Lucky Penny Farm in Garrettsville were herded into a temporary pen, along with about a dozen yoga participants.
Yoga/Qigong instructor and physical therapist Melissa Kerr of Brookfield told me that yoga’s benefits are enhanced when it’s practiced outdoors in the company of animals.
“Yoga and nature independently have a scientific, measurable impact on people by way of chemical/hormone response. Both can reduce blood pressure, decrease anxiety and depression, etc. Nature, animals and yoga are a beautiful way to decompress and promote healing, feel-good vibrations,” she explained.
“Being around less-common animals like goats trigger our brain’s curiosity, which is important to expanding our senses. This, in turn, helps with stepping outside our problems and ‘daily grind’ and helps us focus on the money at hand — the present — where the magic of mindfulness happens,” Kerr said.
Never mind that these curious critters nibble, nuzzle and otherwise invade your personal space while you try perfecting your yoga pose. It’s part of the ambiance. The goats are like a tumble of toddlers, there to remind you not to take yourself so seriously.
Occasionally, a wily goat escaped from the yoga pen and the chase was on to bring her back before she made a meal of all the pretty flowers. ”There’s only so much we can control in this world, and that’s part of this practice,“ Turner gently reminded the group.
Kerr said that outdoor yoga appeals to our visual and auditory senses, as the beauty of the landscape and the calming sounds of nature wash over us. The lush scents from the rich soil and fragrant flowers appeal to our olfactory senses. The swish of the breeze and texture of the grass awaken our tactile senses. The stimulation coaxes us out of entrenched auto-pilot responses.
Three adult siblings came to goat yoga for the first time. Richie from Lakewood admitted, “This was not exactly on my bucket list but I do love goat cheese, yoga and being outdoors, so my sisters convinced me to come. At first, I was distracted by the goats and couldn’t focus on what I was supposed to be doing. But once I accepted them into my surroundings, I was able to focus again.”
Sisters Polly of Twinsburg and JJ of Aurora had a sense of humor about it all. “If you expect it all to go perfectly, this is not for you,” they agreed. “All the laughing and ridiculousness of having the goats clamber over us made us relax more than just yoga itself could have done.”
Maybe goat yoga is here to stay, after all.
Estelle Rodis-Brown is a freelance writer and photographer from Portage County who also serves as digital/assistant editor of Boomer magazine. Thanks to her mother’s influence, she has learned to make yoga practice a part of her daily routine. Namaste!
Photo by Estelle Rodis-Brown
