“People don’t grow old. When they stop growing, they become old.” These wise words come from Jivamukti Yoga founder Sharon Gannon in her foreword to Age Like a Yogi: A Heavenly Path to a Dazzling Third Act, by Main Street Vegan’s Victoria Moran, and they help set the tone for this inspiring and informative book.
Drawing on yoga and its sister science ayurveda, Moran shares practical tips that readers of any age can implement to live both long and well. That last word is key: It’s one thing to live past 90, it’s another to do so with good health and vitality. You’re likely familiar with some of these healthy habits already, whether you’re a yogi or not: meditation, breathwork (pranayama), exercise, eating wholesome vegan foods (more on that in a minute)—and Moran makes a compelling case to either take up or deepen these practices in your daily life.
Yoga Is ‘Youthening’
“Yoga’s benefits are legendary,” Moran tells us; regular practice can improve strength and flexibility, balance, stress response, and more. “Properly instructed and regularly performed, yoga has been shown to increase bone density in older women by one percent per year,” she writes. “One controlled trial looked at eighty-one kundalini yoga students with mild cognitive impairment and showed both short-and-long-term improvements in executive functioning, as well as fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety.”
Meditation is equally beneficial and has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, boost immunity, and improve sleep. A UCLA study “determined that long-term meditators at fifty had brains seven and a half years ‘younger’ than expected, and the rejuvenation continued at a rate of one month and twenty-two days per year after that. This is, quite literally, aging in reverse.”
The Ahimsa Diet
If you haven’t taken a yoga class before, some of the concepts that Moran introduces may be new to you—such as doshas, three energies that combine to create your unique constitution, or the yamas (yoga’s moral precepts) and niyamas (personal disciplines). Fear not: Moran explains all of these and more in clear, concise chapters and ends each with “Practices for the Path,” simple ways to put these ideas into action (who knew that decluttering could be a spiritual practice?).
Ahimsa, which “means that we are to cause as little harm to our fellow beings as possible and do the most good we can,” is the highest teaching, and not eating other animals, who value their lives and don’t want to die, is the simplest, most direct way to practice it, Moran says. “In refraining from animal products, you––you alone, one person––end the suffering and slaughter of an estimated 200 animals per year. You shrink your carbon footprint up to sixty percent. You play a part in alleviating world hunger by freeing up foodstuffs to feed people directly, instead of wastefully cycling them through the bodies of doomed animals. You honor your arteries and, in that remarkable way that what goes around comes around, you increase your joy.” (For a deep dive into this topic, check out Sharon Gannon’s book Yoga & Veganism.)
Combine the “ahimsa diet” with one meant to pacify vata dosha—which becomes more dominant as we age, leading to dryer skin and hair, stiffness, and chronic coldness—and the result is the culinary equivalent of a warm, fuzzy blanket. “You can think of this as the comfort-food diet,” Moran writes. She recommends foods that are grounding, warming, and soothing, such as hot cereals, soups and stews, the savory Indian porridge kitchari (a recipe is included), freshly baked bread, warm spiced almond milk, rice pudding, and berry cobbler. Sounds like heaven!
If you’re ready to age with grace and good humor, check out Age Like a Yogi, and get started on the path with PETA’s free vegan starter kit.
If you pre-order your copy of Age LIke a Yogi and send that receipt to [email protected], you’ll be invited to an exclusive day-long, live, Age Like a Yogi Zoom seminar, and you’ll receive the Age Like a Yogi vegan e-cookbook.
