Walking around with a 20-year-old spine is the ultimate fashion statement. Do you own a 20-year-old spine? Is there a plan in the future to explore this? Where can you get this youthful spine?

First, let’s see what happens to your spine as you age. The spine shows off disharmonies based on our sedentary Western lifestyle. Your spine will calcify and lose flexibility and become rigid. You will lose the elasticity of the cartilage between the discs of the vertebrae. It is an inevitable fact that you also will begin, if you haven’t already, to feel more stiffness and pain as you age.

As the vertebrae collapse on each other, nerves traveling through the spinal cord can become compromised from energy flow to nearby body systems, keeping you from vibrant health. Without a youthful spine, your walking can even become more difficult; your circulation is affected and when this nerve flow is impinged, all the systems of the body can be negatively affected. So what do you do? Let your body experience a yoga class and don’t let your mind talk you out of this wonderful experience.

Yoga practice elongates the spine and gives more space to the nerves. Did you know you can even learn to move nerves back in their proper positions? Also, yoga will move the spine in six other directions, restoring its youthfulness. This process of creating more space in the spine and removing blockages will give you that ultimate fashion statement of a 20-year-old spine.

Patience is required for vibrant health to persist in the body, but one must not let the intellectual part of the brain get in the way of an important, life-changing experience that the body deserves. When you can begin to wear this type of fashion you can then begin to suggest yoga to others. Shouldn’t we all be wearing the same fashion, or at least patiently working toward this end?

Tim Howell, E-RYT-200, RYT-500, is the owner of Joyful Hearts Yoga. Contact him at 520-808-9383 or JoyfulHeartsYoga.com.