Amazing Grace

Written by Melissa Welch

With sweat gushing from every pore, 66-year-old Mary McCord stood at the top of her mat with a smile on her face. She had moved through a vigorous one-and-a-half -hour yoga practice, balancing, twisting with backbends and headstands and came to rest happily, content with herself and the effort.

The week prior she engaged in 108 sun salutations (that’s an equivalent of running a half marathon) to raise money for the Give Back Yoga Foundation. What manifests this youthful spirit and body?

“Up until menopause, I lived a life primarily of the mind, the intellect,” said Mary. “Then my body demanded attention and I gave it. I didn’t have a choice here – trust me.” She references poet Derek Wolcott’s words in that the body is “the stranger who has loved you all your life and whom you have ignored for another.”

“The rewards of such attentiveness have been huge, just huge,” said McCord.

Geri Esposito, 62, can relate. “It’s all interconnected. What we feel in our bodies as we age are the thoughts and feelings we have held onto—the hardships, pains, and the joy. The trick is letting it all go and being here, right now.”

Esposito, a 20-year veteran yoga instructor, massage therapist and artist, teaches students to let go through the joint practice of art and yoga. She hosts classes in Soulful Collage®, as well as a joyful yoga class that encourages students to explore their energy through accepting what their body, mind and spirit are doing in the present moment. Esposito emphasizes that yoga may be about flexibility, balance and strength, but ultimately it’s about adaptability

In her native New York City accent, she quips, “We take ourselves too seriously. When we let it go and have a little fun looking into ourselves, we begin to learn that imperfection is beautiful, and that age is what we make of it.”

According to a recent article in Yoga Journal, internist and Yoga Journal medical director Tim McCall, says that to accept the process of aging, yoga says, ‘See clearly that it’s inevitable.’

“Yoga doesn’t promise miracles, but it can change the quality of the way you age. You may look like you have a less impressive practice at 50 or 70, but you know better. You know you have more peace of mind, that you’re happy, that you have more compassion,” added McCall.

Through yoga, McCord and Esposito have found peace-of-mind, and the connection to something within themselves to something much bigger.

“That’s the practice of yoga,” said Sara Dasso, owner and instructor at Two Rivers Yoga in New Braunfels. “When you begin to move your body into poses (asanas) that have been used for hundreds of years to invoke openness, compassion and love—your body feels it, then it translates to the mind and the spirit. “

For McCord, a retired teacher, distance runner, and mother of one grown child, she came to life’s midpoint with accumulated status, reaching her goals, and still kept asking the question, ‘What is this life all about?’. “I knew there was something more,” said McCord.

What she found when she hit the mat for the first time in 2006 was the freedom to explore. “I am getting old. But instead of denying it, I simply put my energy into exploring it. My body surprises my mind on some days. ‘I think—did I really get into that backbend?’ My body went beyond my mind, cause I let that part go—and boy has it opened up the spiritual “bigger picture” of the world for me.”

“Geri and Mary are an inspiration to me and many other woman who balance careers, families, and life’s crazy rollercoaster ride. They have arrived at the sunset fully aware of all that has made up their lives, accepting the power of the moment and honoring all that has made them who they are—finding true happiness in the journey and exploration,” said Dasso.

Esposito and McCord both claim that no amount of vitamins, prescription drugs, fad diets or personal training regimens could give them what they discovered and whole-heartedly share through their yoga practice: amazing grace, and peace for who the Divine created them to be.

Melissa Welch is Principal of Loud and Clear Communications and also works as a freelance writer living in New Braunfels.