The relaxation of chair yoga with older practitioners

Good morning, DMV! It’s Tuesday, April 28.

Part of the reason I did yoga teacher training was because I wanted to work with older people. My parents are in their early 80s. They and their friends are facing health and mobility issues. I was thinking of them as I launched into the training.

I often practice in classes with a few yogis who are in their 70s or older. They inspire me. Yesterday, I took my first chair yoga class with elders. It was humbling.

We sat in a circle with our instructor and practiced, breathing and moving together. My empathy symptoms kicked in. I felt the challenge of lifting arms up overhead and feet off the ground. I also felt joy for showing up, in community.

We did a fun exercise similar to rub your belly and pat your head, only it was rub the index finger in circles against your thumb on the right hand while tapping your index finger against your thumb on the left. Then switch sides. It was a mind bender. I couldn’t help but smile. Try it!

As we closed our practice, we ran our fingers from forehead to temples. Then over our cheeks. Down to chin and tracing up along the jawbone.

I yawned. Once. Twice. Again. Totally relaxed.

All the tension had drained from my body. I had settled into a comfortable place — happy and grateful to have shared time and space with this group of elders.

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Sunrise and sunset across the DMV …

Maggie Prieto, who is in her 60s, snapped this photo of sunrise at 7 a.m. on March 18, in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of D.C.

“I was on the third floor of my home, looking east and saw the sky on fire,” she wrote in her submission.

“I had to hurry downstairs, grab a coat (it was cold out!) to get to an intersection with some semblance of a view east. View from a third floor window would've been better vantage point, but obscured by glare from window or screens behind it.”

Lia Herrera Lasso, 56, of Reston, Virginia, on the evening or March 22: “I encountered this amazing sunset while crossing the George Mason Memorial Bridge after an afternoon at SAAM [Smithsonian American Art Museum] and dinner downtown. I was amazed by the colors and how it made things shine. It was a reminder of how beautiful things around us can be.”

Henry Blinder, 74, took this photo from his rooftop deck overlooking the Washington & Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail in downtown Vienna.

“A weather front had just come through, creating interesting and layered cloud patterns,” he wrote in his submission. “As the sun dipped below the horizon, the bands of clouds lit up with layers of color as reflected in the photo. The colors were ephemeral, though, and faded quickly as the sun disappeared further below the horizon.”

Share your recent photos of life in the DMV here.