She’s been practicing yoga for over 30 years…and she just turned 100! And we heart her. Jean Dawson just celebrated her 100th birthday on February 20th and if you’ve done the math that means she didn’t even start her yoga practice until she was in her late 60s, which means you need to share this with your silver senior aunts, uncles, moms, and dads right now. (High fives if you’re reading this and you’re over 60!)
Dawson entered her first yoga class at the young age of 67 after seeing an ad about it in her neighborhood and she still attends weekly classes to this day. The UK-native practices the prop-intensive, static-pose-holding Iyengar Yoga and credits it for her health and longevity.
“I don’t know how I would be today if I hadn’t taken up Iyengar Yoga. It has given me good posture, balance, concentration, flexibility and stamina,” Dawson told Metro UK.
“It has really changed my life and has helped cure aches and pains,” she said. “I used to have trouble from a slipped disc in my back but doing yoga really helped me cope with it.”
She may not be doing wild things and eka pada whosiwhatsits, but that’s not what it’s about, anyway.
“You can only do what you can do,” says Dawson. “A few years ago, I could do all the handstands and everything but I have to stop doing those now due to my blood pressure.”
Dawson says she’s met kind people and made good friends through yoga, one of which is her teacher Christine Tyson, whom she’s been practicing with for decades and who’s now 66, which we think is pretty darn neato.
Over 30 years of yoga and she’s still going strong.
“Doing Iyengar Yoga has helped me more than anything and I really enjoy the company every single week, so I think I can continue for a little longer,” she says.
And we say, happy birthday, Jean! Thanks for being an inspiration. We think you’re the queen of tree pose.
images credit: Lorne Campbell/Guzelian
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She is amazing and inspirational! “Do your practice and all is coming”. Even quality of life as we age!
I can’t “do all the handstands and everything” but I hope that in 76 years, when I’m 100 years old I’ll be keeping up my practice just like Jean!
I used do yoga in Peebles but since moving to Edinburgh I cant find a class to suit my age almost 70 …all the class are far to advanced …though years ago I could do most of these things. I wish there were class especially for older people as there was in Peebles
So much better you don’t show the outlier 90 year olds such as Tao Porchon-Lynch (or non-yoga teacher Phyllis Sues, for that matter). It had been the over-50 set who overwhelmingly had done mild, forgiving old-school yoga back in the ’70s before all the eka pada whosemegows became a thing.
Meanwhile, could you reach this 50+ lady who bought in to all that wild thingie nonsense?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/11/yoga-giving-it-up_n_1760171.html
She is amazing!
Her age is 100 years, but she tried her first yoga!!
That’s really great.
Gustavo Woltmann
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It is always great to hear about those that pick up exercise at a later age and reap the benefits. It is inspirational to know that it is never too late.
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