[With me are the sexagenarian attendees to our bi-weekly yoga sessions, my fraternity brothers from the PI OMICRON Fraternity who want to be constantly sane and not lame, namely: L-R, internationally renowned painter Jonah Salvosa, me, ILO retired functionary Nory Palarca and Palanca-awardee Lem Garcellano.]
Years ago, I got so fascinated in yoga for which reason, after enrolling in yoga I cajoled the immediate members of my family to also take a try and do yoga. The price was quite steep but I perceived that the benefits would surely outweigh the cost.
It has been bruited about that in the US, the yoga craze started to grow in mid-1970s when President Richard Nixon approached a master yogi for help sometime in 1972. President Nixon was reportedly then suffering from advanced thrombophlebitis, a swelling of the veins due to blood clots, in his left leg. Thereafter, following some practice on supervised yoga, Pres. Nixon apparently got healed.
And that master yogi became a sensation and eventually turned out into becoming one of the wealthiest yoga practitioners as he, came up with an idea for some kind of a starter, of organizing a US $ 11,000.00 nine-week training session towards a certification as accredited yoga teachers. That yogi master who customarily taught yoga wearing only a Speedo and a Rolex, reputedly kept during his yoga financial heyday a fleet of THIRTY-FIVE (35) Rolls-Royce and Bentley automobiles in his Los Angeles garage.
Since the discipline’s official institution in the US, yoga has become a favorite among top celebrities. The more avid yoga enthusiasts are: retired basketball star, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers; Andy Murray, men’s division tennis wonder; Hollywood actor George Clooney, pop-rock singer Madonna, etc.
Among the more important benefits of the yoga practice are as follows: increases flexibility, enhances muscle strength and tone, augments blood flow, improves respiration as it adds up more room for breathing in the lungs, renews energy and vitality, balances one’s metabolism, reduces weight, maximizes over-all cardio and circulatory health, improves athletic performance, perfects one’s posture, betters bone health, corrects/improves one’s balance and protects the yoga practitioner from injury.
Indeed, as yoga is more of stretching and bending in place sans any jogging, jumping and running, which at times create a toll upon those wearied ball joints of the lower extremities (as they would bump into each other while in a jog, or a jump or a run), yoga is perfectly safe. Indeed, there is real protection from injury. For yoga starters, one must just keep his/her own pace and try not to do all the yoga postures with the customary time period of FREEZE.
When I started out with yoga, on my first session, I was actually resting almost half of the time of the yoga practice as it really was punishing and strenuous. And I got so inspired and really amazed when I saw a 75 year old lady (among the more senior participants in our class) who masterfully did the yoga postures so perfectly and so gracefully.
As I wanted to propagate the yoga practice, I invited friends, kith and kin; to do YOGA with me in our badminton hall just adjacent to our Law Office. But the pressures of lawyering work, the eventually diminishing number of attendees (who usually would invariably provid hilarity and fun) and the enticement of the badminton players who were always happily playing and jousting with their racquets and shuttlecocks, kept me away from yoga for some time.
Now, as I have decided to renew the yoga practice, my senior fraternity brothers from the PI OMICRON FRATERNITY, may have realized that they need yoga to keep them sane and not lame. And my sexagenarian fraternity brothers have obeisantly heeded my invitation to join me in the yoga practice, particularly: Nory Palarca, Jonah Salvosa, and Lem Garcellano. A UP Law 79 classmate, Babes Navarro, is also an on-and-off attendee. Another notable attendee is Atty. Ben Bulalacao who has reportedly required his law office’s staff to also join in the yoga experience.
On top of those senior attendees to the yoga sessions, my new and most intriguing new comer to our covey of yoga practitioners is my lawyer-friend, Atty. Cecilio Lumantao (“Cecil”). Cecil is not a sexagenarian (actually he is an octogenarian) but some kind of an apparent sexologist. And on the very first day of Cecil’s attendance, Cecil sheepishly whispered to my ears: “Walter, ito bang YOGA ay nakakaganda rin sa larangan ng pagtatalik?”[English translation: “Walter, does Yoga improve sex performance too?”]
I was told that one yogi master aptly stated that: “NEVER TOO BAD, NEVER TO OLD, NEVER TOO LATE, NEVER TOO SICK, TO STRETCH AND HAVE A NEW BEGINNING WITH YOGA.”
And thus, I told Cecil: “Cecil, you really will have a new beginning with YOGA!”
