It has picked up even greater steam today. Consider this lead sentence in a recent article by Megan Molteni in Stat Magazine (Aug 9, 2002): “Beating back the diseases of aging has become something of a pet project for many of Silicon Valley’s tech titans. Earlier this year, Altos Labs, a partial cellular reprogramming company, drew billions of dollars of investment, including from Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner. ” We are a society always in search of the elusive pill, potion, or treatment that promises us health, happiness, and longevity. Investors spend billions to develop the miracle break-through to the fountain of youth. Consumers spend thousands and thousands over a lifetime trying the latest youth-preserving fads.
All, however, usually have one common thread. They require little of ourselves; whether it is, for example, botox treatments, wrinkle creams, ingested supplements, mineral springs, etc. All that is asked of us – besides spending incredible amounts – is to submit to a “miracle” treatment, apply “youth-preserving” topicals, and ingest “life-extending” pills and potions. Don’t get me wrong.
Many of those have some marginal, though usually short-term, benefit. But none have ever lived up to their inferences of being the next best thing to the “fountain of youth.” So here’s my question. Why the constant search for longer life, health, and quality of life outside of us when we already have it within us to do more than those externally applied? All that is required is some effort each day on our part. Now I’m not talking about the “NO-PAIN, NO GAIN” types of normal exercise. I certainly understand and appreciate those as a former college basketball player. But the NO-PAIN, NO GAIN methods are typically about performance-enhancing; not life-enhancing.
Life-enhancing is about longer life, greater health, and feeling better. That is what tai chi yoga is about. First of all, the daily practice of tai chi yoga not only makes us feel better AFTER we do it – but also makes us feel better WHILE we do it. That begins with never moving or stretching farther than is comfortable for us. A person who can comfortably bend only 30 degrees forward or backward derives the same internal benefits as one bending 60, 90, or 120 degrees.
Next, we move and stretch only in rhythm with our breathing. In fact, our breathing typically initiates movement of the body. But proper breathing is not upper chest breathing but is controlled by the stomach deflating in as we exhale and inflating out as we inhale. Watch a baby breathe and you will see that is how we all naturally breathed when we were born. Then there is the effect of gravity on the body. Our skin, stomach, and muscles sag over time because of the effect of gravity on the body – always pulling us down. Varicose veins appear as the blood flow fights against gravity to get to the head. Our hair grays from a lack of enough rich, oxygenated blood to the head, as does our ability to maintain brain health and concentration. When we invert our body each day with integrated stomach breathing via a shoulder stand or headstand, the effect of gravity on the body is reversed.
Last but not least is tai chi. There is its flow like a river stream; a release of tension lifting; a floating feeling as if the body wanted to fly; and the sensation of energy flowing within and around us. When combined in the correct sequence of yoga’s standing and seated/lying movements, the daily practice of tai chi yoga helps us defy the limits that life seeks to impose on us and brings greater joy to life’s journey. In other words, tai chi yoga I believe is the closest thing we can experience for now in the elusive search for the fountain of youth. While it cannot give us perpetual youth, it can prolong healthier living, bring about better balance, and help us feel greater happiness amidst life’s challenges, sorrows, and sufferings.
John balancing on a rock at the age of 74 in 2022