Yoga is Better When Wet

What if you could harness the healing power of water through yoga? Join me, MJ Waddell, as I sit down with the extraordinary Christa Fairbrother, a trailblazer in the realm of water yoga. From her beginnings as a professional ferrier to her transformative journey into yoga after being diagnosed with arthritis, Christa shares her inspiring story. Discover how she found her calling in water yoga and how it offers unparalleled benefits, especially for those with chronic illnesses such as arthritis and autoimmune conditions. Her unique approach to yoga through water not only makes the practice accessible but also profoundly effective.

In our conversation, we also dive into the rich philosophy of yoga and how it can be seamlessly woven into daily practice. Learn how to balance effort and non-harming by practicing the yamas and niyamas, such as ahimsa (non-harming) and tapas (discipline). We discuss the importance of self-awareness (svadhyaya) and how understanding one's limits and capabilities can lead to a more sustainable yoga journey. This segment touches on the sensitive subject of living with chronic illnesses and the often-invisible nature of disabilities, emphasizing the need for compassion and understanding within the community.

We wrap up with a heartfelt exploration of wellness through poetry and the practicalities of aqua yoga. "Sharing my love for poetry, especially pieces that highlight chronic illness and women's issues, I hope to offer a sense of recognition and empathy to listeners facing similar challenges." Christa and I discuss the nuances of aqua yoga, from managing sun exposure to finding the right pool environment, and how these elements can make yoga more accessible for everyone. Don't miss this enriching episode packed with insights, inspiration, and practical advice to enhance your wellness journey.

Find Christa:
Aqua yoga information for movement teachers: https://www.christafairbrother.com/teach-aqua-yoga/

Free aqua yoga videos for pool users:
https://www.christafairbrother.com/aqua-yoga-pose-database/

Aqua yoga books:
https://www.christafairbrother.com/books/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ChristaFairbrotherYoga

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/aquacontentyogi/

Read Christa's poetry:
https://christafairbrotherwrites.com/

https://www.instagram.com/christafairbrotherwrites/

Chapters

• 0:00 Water Yoga
• 9:50 Incorporating Yoga Philosophy Into Practice
• 20:25 Wellness Through Poetry and Aqua Yoga
• 35:49 Youthful Wellness Subscription Information

Transcript

Christa Fairbrother: 0:00

Water can be both refreshing and relaxing, and it's also a great setting for doing your yoga practice. My guest, rista Fairbrother, helps people all over the world get in the pool and experience the benefits of a land-based yoga practice without having to get on and off the ground, sweat or join a gym, and Shavasana allows you to literally float into bliss. Krista has so much expertise and wisdom to share with us, so let's get started. Welcome to the Youthful Older Yogi podcast. I'm MJ Waddell, your yogi host and founder of Share Yoga. I've been practicing, teaching and loving yoga for over 25 years. I'm an advocate of movement, creativity and staying healthy in mind and body after 50. And so are my guests. It's never too late to start and there's a lot of healthy years ahead, so let's start now. Hi everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Youthful Older Yogi. I'm MJ Waddell, creator and founder of Share Yoga, and I'm so glad you're listening or watching the podcast.

Christa Fairbrother: 1:10

Today. I have a celebrity guest, Christa Fairbrother. She is a water yoga coach and trainer, and she's very passionate about helping people get fit and healthy, even if they live with chronic illness. She is a recognized expert in water yoga. She is a published, award-winning author, which we'll get to in a bit and what I love about her most is like she's extremely educated on the whys, the hows and the benefits of water yoga, and even you know if you have arthritis or an autoimmune challenge or chronic pain. Water yoga is such a beautiful compliment and lifestyle.

Christa Fairbrother: 1:55

So, Christa, thank you so much for being here. And one other thing I want to mention before we start is that I love your mantra, which is yoga is better when wet. Thank you, I appreciate being here. Good Thank you. And also another thing I highly recommend Krista's training. I was fortunate enough to take it this past May. We both live in Florida, on opposite coasts, and fortunately I'm now teaching two water classes a week and it has just enhanced my teaching and also my well-being. So thank you so much for that, krista.

Christa Fairbrother: 2:35

Yeah, glad to hear it.

Christa Fairbrother: 2:36

Yeah, so let's just start right at the top. Can you tell us how your yoga journey started?

Christa Fairbrother: 2:42

Sure Yoga journey that does out myself, out myself with, uh, my age and everything. So about 30 years ago I was a professional ferrier. So for someone who does not know what that is, it's somebody who puts horseshoes on horses, machines don't do that. It's really hard on your body and I'd heard from somewhere this was in the early 90s. You know, oh, yoga is good for your back, you should do yoga.

Christa Fairbrother: 3:10

I lived on an island in the Pacific Northwest at the time and, coincidentally, when I started looking into yoga, we had a person who had owned the Seattle School of Yoga, was a very prominent Iyengar yoga teacher who had semi retired to the island and was offering classes and not being a yogi,

Christa Fairbrother: 3:26

I didn't realize in the beginning her prominence, but I was really blessed to be able to work with someone of that caliber and so I started taking weekly classes and it was like you know, this yoga thing, it's kind of all right, and so I developed a personal practice. So, I would do yoga before I went to work in the morning for about 10 years. I went to graduate school in England, kept doing yoga, moved to Florida, had a couple of kids, kept doing yoga. And then finally I decided well, after 20 years, maybe this yoga thing is important enough to me. I should do yoga teacher training. At the time it was just for myself, thinking well, it would help me deepen my practice, as many people will go to yoga teacher training for and in the middle of that training, I had a change in my health status. I went into yoga teacher training being diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, which is a autoimmune disease that can attack basically anything in your body. It's not one of the really great ones to have.

Christa Fairbrother: 4:27

However, I found out that I actually had a much rarer form of connective tissue disease, which is called mixed connective tissue disease, and so I also, in how it expresses in me, had rheumatoid arthritis, and it really explained a lot of symptoms I'd had since I was a kid, and basically realized I had been self-managing myself and my disease with my yoga practice when I was a ferrier.

Christa Fairbrother: 4:52

I was it's at the Pacific Northwest, so I'm outside in barns, I'm cold and getting wet, and that's what actually drove me from doing it is I was feeling like I wasn't physically capable of doing it anymore, which that health diagnosis really explained. And so that journey really inspired me to become a teacher, not just somebody who practiced but be able to share the practice with other people who lived with autoimmune and connective tissue problems. And in pursuing the teacher training for yoga, for arthritis, I met a fellow Florida yogi who just casually mentioned at dinner oh, we have this wine and yoga night at the pool once in a while. I was like, oh my God, why has no one told me about this? And so I, literally as soon as I could get Internet access, signed up for water, yoga teacher training and I just absolutely loved it and that became my passion and that's really what I do professionally these days.

Christa Fairbrother: 5:45

That's great wine and yoga. All right, I'm there, yeah exactly in the pool.

Christa Fairbrother: 5:51

MJ Waddell:

Christa Fairbrother: 5:51

,

Christa Fairbrother: 5:51

it's not just wine and yoga that's like the trifecta for sure, yeah, maybe, but in the pool, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah it's like a swim, a bar, perfect.

Christa Fairbrother: 6:06

And so when did so that started you off into the aqua fitness, that first party? And and then did you just figure out on your own or did you take aqua training as well for aqua fitness?

Christa Fairbrother: 6:20

good question. So once I became an aqua yoga teacher it really became apparent.

Christa Fairbrother: 6:25

It's like, okay, well, at this time you heard me say I've already been doing yoga for 20 years fairly regularly and it was like I think I got this yoga thing kind of dialed that in, but this aquatics there's a lot to this water stuff that I'm not aware of, and so I did get my aquatic exercise certification through the aquatic exercise association, who are considered the gold standard internationally for that, as well as my aquatic therapy certificate with the Aquatic Therapy and Rehab Institute. Those two organizations were founded by the same person During the pandemic. They re-blended into the same organization even though they had been separate for a long time. So the aquatic therapy similar to the difference between yoga and yoga therapy is. It really customizes aquatic exercise more to the individual and deals with people who have more extensive health challenges than, say, traditional aquatic exercise.

Christa Fairbrother: 7:23

So I have all three certifications to be able to really, um, to approach the discipline from what I feel is, it's true, blended place. It's not just taking a yoga class and plunking it in the water. That doesn't really acknowledge the fact that we're in the water and the power of what water can do for us. Nor is it an aqua aerobics class where you're just, you know, bouncing to the oldies in the pool, which both are great. You know I get flippant, but it's not that I don't love yoga or don't love aquatic exercise.

Christa Fairbrother: 7:54

Obviously, I do this all the time. I'm very passionate about it. But every discipline has its strengths and weaknesses. I

Christa Fairbrother: 8:02

And did you notice right away when you were taking like your first aqua trainings? Did you notice a difference physically from land yoga?

Christa Fairbrother: 8:12

Oh yeah, good question. I, I did, yes, um in doing in pursuing yoga teacher training, I had the opportunity to train as an iron guard teacher.

Christa Fairbrother: 8:24

I was invited to do that and I had reached a point in my own practice where it was just like this is just hurting, I can't. And this was before I knew and had the rheumatoid arthritis and so much joint damage, and it was just like no, I just, you know, I just really can't do this anymore. And so putting my yoga practice in the water really gave me the ability to, I would say, find that comfort with my practice again, instead of pushing and striving all the time and really trying to make yoga look like something, not necessarily in a magazine, but in a predetermined form that meets a certain level of yoga. It allowed me to be able to say you know, this is really fun. I've got 360 degrees, I can get creative, I have three art degrees.

Christa Fairbrother: 9:09

So I'm a rather creative person, I can do something that feels good for me and take a little more ownership of it in that way, which I've, you know, since, gone on. I'm now an accessible yoga teacher as well and gotten a little more passionate in that journey and teaching yoga for arthritis I'm a mentor in the yoga for arthritis program in working or, excuse me, in taking that training with Jeevana for accessible yoga and being a little more passionate about yoga can be a wide variety of things and it can look like a great number of things, which I was not at that place when I started doing aqua yoga, so it really helped facilitate that journey.

Christa Fairbrother: 9:49

Yeah that's great. in

Christa Fairbrother: 9:50

I wanted to pop in to thank you for listening to the youthful, older yogi. It's season two and I'm so excited to bring you more great guests, education and ways for you to stay youthful in mind and body after 50. If you love the show and want to help me make it even better, please consider becoming a supporter. You get to choose how much and how often you give and there's no commitment. And remember, I donate a portion of every dollar I receive to charity For 2024, I've chosen UNICEF. Just click the support button in the show notes. And just as helpful is sharing the show with other youthful, older yogis. Thank you again so much for listening. And now let's get back to the podcast.

Christa Fairbrother: 10:37

And I also love the way you've incorporated the philosophy of yoga into your trainings. So it's not just yeah, we're just going to do warrior two and to reverse warrior and things like that. You really do sprinkle in the philosophy. It's like little droplets of water which anyone can digest, because a lot of people they're not even interested in the philosophy, they're just interested in the. You know how it makes them feel or whatever. So, um, and so sprinkling those drop it droplets for into your trainings if other people aren't familiar with that. Could you talk just a little bit more about how you do that? Let's just take like, just choose a yama or a niyama, and how you would sprinkle in that as your class yeah.

Christa Fairbrother: 11:24

So for those people who are unfamiliar with yoga and its full tenants maybe they have been to a yoga class and it was all just movement is yoga is actually a much larger philosophy and lifestyle. It really is India's gift to the world that they have given us, and it's a multi-thousand year old discipline that has some foundational texts, and those foundational texts actually only mentioned one yoga svadhyaya posture, which is sitting down and meditating, and for anybody who's tried to sit down and meditate for more than about 15 minutes, it gets very uncomfortable very quickly, and so the physical aspect of yoga actually develops to make you better at sitting still and to help you develop that discipline of what happens when you sit still, not just physically but what happens in your mind. And so if we really are trying to do yoga and honor the tradition of the practice and these tenants and these gifts that were given to us, we are trying to honor the full spectrum of that. So you spoke to one of the yamas or niyamas. Yoga is designed to have what they call eight limbs.

Christa Fairbrother: 12:32

In a land yoga class. I like to, because I'm in the water, call them waves, and part of the purpose of that as well is if you've been to the beach. The waves don't stop. They don't come in any particular order, they just keep coming. There's a wave and there's a wave, and there's a wave and there's a wave. Often, when we go to a traditional land class, the limbs of yoga are doled out based on your ability levels, and so it can become a situation where it's perceived that you're not ready for something, or you're not good enough for something yet, instead svadhyaya being able to say well, the place I'm at, I need these tools of yoga and these other tools are waiting for me when I'm ready for them, whether that's physically, mentally or emotionally, and so that's a little bit of background, for example, of where these are coming from. So the yamas and niyamas would be the first and second wave, and I can give you the example of actually what I taught this week was we talked about the relationship between ahimsa and tapas, and ahimsa means non-harming and tapas means, traditionally, discipline.

Christa Fairbrother: 13:37

I like to talk about it in the context of right effort, so I already shared my story where I had a little too much tapas. I was going into a yoga class and it was always push, push, push, push, push, instead of saying, well, geez, is it appropriate for me to push here, or is it not? We have another philosophy of yoga called svayaya, which is, I think, one of the most powerful parts of yoga, diagnosis is knowing yourself. And you can make the argument is I didn't know myself well enough between the physically what I needed, perhaps my diagnosis. You know what was going on with me I was applying too much tapas, not enough ahimsa or non harming.

Christa Fairbrother: 14:15

So if we think about this idea of how can I practice yoga with the right amount of effort for me, what am I prepared to show up with today, and that can vary considerably day to day that's the place I should be working from. Ahimsa, which means non-harming, does not mean lazy, and dialing it in. It means, because it is that imbalance with tapas. It means that I'm working in a way that tomorrow I'm going to feel glad that I practiced and feel good, compared to like, oh wow, I really pulled something or something popped and now I'm really not feeling good. And that's Fadjaya, or knowing yourself, is what allows me to walk that narrow tightrope of what's going to be appropriate. So a little example of how that would play out.

Christa Fairbrother: 15:01

Yeah, I, I love it, it really. It transfers to in a society where there's a lot of push to do better, to have more. If you're not working hard enough, you're lazy or whatever they want to say you are, so I really love how you sprinkle that in. So there's so many people that live with chronic illness, including yourself, and you're very open with your health conditions and diagnose, and you did send out an email recently that I wanted to talk a little bit about, if you're okay talking about that, and you labeled yourself as disabled and what made you share this with the community and what can we learn about those that are disabled when they don't appear to be disabled?

Christa Fairbrother: 15:59

Yes, so I invite anybody who is perhaps seeing us on screen and recognizing that I'm not using any mobility aids. I'm talking to you on this podcast, I'm standing, I'm not using any mobility aids. I encourage anybody to read the ADA definition of what it is to be disabled, because we definitely have this perception that disability is only someone perhaps that uses a wheelchair or a mobility aid, when really it can be a vision disability, it can be a hearing disability, it is one or more bodily function is impacted to the point of it alters your daily life and your ability to cope in a daily life. And, frankly, I long since passed that with my health status and I um, in terms of why I shared is, I felt that I was getting a little dishonest in the sense of I say I have these diseases and I, you know, I present myself as doing all this yoga in the pool you spoke to. Oh well, you know I did that training with me in May and a lot of people see me do this and think well, really, you know, how could she have this? And I would answer well, much of what I do I owe to pharmacopoeia, which is great that that is available to me, but it also is falsifying the situation a little bit, and the fact that you know, if I'm presenting myself as as doing aqua yoga all weekend and it takes a pile of steroids to get me there, that's really not that healthy and so it it really.

Christa Fairbrother: 17:38

Why I shared is I'm clearly working through these ableist uh designations myself. I'm clearly working through these ableist designations myself, and I thought it was important to be able to show what invisible disabilities are about. That comes up fairly regularly within the lupus and rheumatoid arthritis world in terms of what it is to have an invisible disability, and that's often what some of the autoimmune diseases and some of these other diseases that cause you to say, okay, well, it's three o'clock, I have to take a nap. I mean, it's like I'm going to be hazardous. There's been many situations where I have been hazardous enough, where I like quit driving for a week because I didn't feel comfortable.

Christa Fairbrother: 18:25

Things like this, which if we don't talk about people don't realize.

Christa Fairbrother: 18:28

And, and you mentioned, I was very I'm open about my diagnoses and I think there we in the yoga world, we don't do enough to to challenge that, those ableist perspectives. There are yogis out there who will say, well, if you did enough yoga, you wouldn't have X diagnosis. Or if you did enough yoga, you wouldn't need X My practice Or if you embrace the full spectrum of yoga and became vegan, then you wouldn't have all this going on with you. And the reality is is we, we live with what we live with. We're full people.

Christa Fairbrother: 19:02

Yoga is a tool to help us live better lives. It is not some miracle health thing and and some people see it as that and if you live with an invisibility, disability, excuse me, and you're listening to this, you're like raising your hand, you're like, oh, my God, if I had, you know, 50 bucks for every bit of time. I've been told that I should do yoga as if it would cure whenever I have. You know, I did not want to feed into that and and so there's, there's a couple of reasons why it became that, that um, why it seemed the time to share and why, it did.

Christa Fairbrother: 19:36

Well, thank you for sharing and being honest about it. And I I remember thinking that myself when I was younger and I first started it that oh my gosh, my life is so much better and I'm so much healthier. And it's all all from yoga, which it's, yeah, a little bit, but now, you know, I'm almost 65. I practice is completely different. You know I my sun salutation probably takes at least 90 seconds to two minutes to do a full sun salutation. And so and I'm very open with my students about I have some arthritis behind my knee. I've got some, you know things, and yoga won't fix that.

Christa Fairbrother: 20:19

Yoga can help to manage it, along with other healthy lifestyle choices and things like that. So I think that is a lot of the belief for a lot of people you know that might see yogis as these perfectly healthy people. You present yourself as a perfectly healthy person with lots of energy, and the two day training it was go, go, go and it was like I was like, oh my gosh, I'm exhausted. She must be like really exhausted. So it's it's just important to bring up and also, I think for people that have any type of condition or are thinking about doing yoga, the pool might be the first place to just dip your toe in, would you say? That's fair.

Christa Fairbrother: 21:07

Well, especially depending on what you have going on. So if, if you have any kind of condition that limits your mobility and or energy, it can really be your friend because the water is very buoyant, very forgiving. One of the biggest downsides of the water, here in Florida especially, is, you know, we've got the sun, we're blessed with so many outdoor pools, but we also have so much sun, and so that is one of the biggest barriers that I will often hear so much sun, and so that is one of the biggest barriers that I will often hear. That and access. Where again we're in Florida, we have a lot of pools. Not necessarily all the country, all around the country, has access to these pools. So what I, of course, tell people first thing is aqua yoga is wonderful. If you don't have access to it, find the kind of yoga that would work for you, whether that's chair yoga, restorative yoga. I would never say, oh well, if you can't do aqua yoga, don't do yoga. That's not something.

Christa Fairbrother: 21:58

I would believe in but access can be an issue and we have to be careful in terms of maybe, perhaps even breathing conditions. I've heard people say well, indoor pools.

Christa Fairbrother: 22:10

I get out of the sun and then those chloramines that are in the air that we're breathing cause me to have respiratory issues, so there are some issues with it. But if it is a situation that is really going to be an aid for you, then absolutely. Things like fibromyalgia, which can, if you exercise and push yourself in such a way you're actually going to feel worse it can be great for that. Something like MS, where you tend to overheat any kind of exercise you do. Getting in the water keeps you cool, so there are certain conditions it can really be beneficial for.

Christa Fairbrother: 22:46

And then, if you think about it from the perspective of well, maybe I don't have a health condition, but what could it offer me is, if you think about it of the perspective of you're perhaps going to use new muscle groups, you're going to use new exercise or do new exercises. You get some neuroplasticity. That idea of cross-training can be really valuable. So I think it has something to offer very diverse groups. It's just a matter of finding the right person to work with and sadly, aqua yogis were kind of like I say we're like rainbow unicorns we're really hard to find in the forest. So part of my mission is offering these trainings, is to help us to become more available so that we're here to help all these people with all their different needs.

Christa Fairbrother: 23:32

Great

Christa Fairbrother: 23:33

Well, I want to shift the topic a little bit to. You're a poet. Yes, I was, you know, doing research on you and I came across some of your poems and I was like but specifically, and it's been your dream to always be a poet, correct?

Christa Fairbrother: 23:53

Yeah

Christa Fairbrother: 23:53

when

Christa Fairbrother: 23:53

I was a little kid. If you would have asked me at 10, what would? You what are you?

Christa Fairbrother: 23:57

going to be, I would have said, a poet. And again, you know we're talking about our age. So in the 70s I'm a little kid and I would write out my poems and I actually submitted them. There was that kids magazine called Cricket Magazine.

Christa Fairbrother: 24:22

If anybody listening might be like, oh my God, I got that. If you're, you, know my age. I actually submitted poems to them as a little kid.

MJ Waddell: 24:25

So, , yes, oh, that's so cool. What's really even cooler is that you write poetry about chronic illness and and and women's issues and, um, and your work. You're trying to represent the millions of people that that deal with, you know, chronic illness and it's just, it's beautiful poetry and it's been featured in many, many publications and you've received awards, and so I was. I asked you previously if you would be willing to read one of your poems. I'll let you choose which one. I there were so many that I read. I was like, oh, and I love her, and you make illness seem beautiful. It's like, yeah, well, it's not beautiful, but it's like it's not. It's, I think, what, what it was a knowing, if you're. I think there was one poem where you're in a doctor's office or something. It's that knowing . Oh, I have felt that way in that situation. So which poem are you going to read?

Christa Fairbrother: 25:24

, so I brought a poem called With Pain and to speak to what you were saying is yes, I would hope that by reading the poems that you would feel seen is yes, I would hope that by reading the poems that you would feel seen, because many poems, when we turn to poetry weddings, funerals you know, we, when we are having big emotions and we need help with those, we often turn to poetry and I find that there's just not the poetry for when we're having big emotions with the health issues, so what you spoke to, just like in the doctor's office. So I wrote a poem about infusions. I haven't seen them.

Christa Fairbrother: 25:57

That's the one you're reading speaking yes, I think that's fine so this poem is called with pain and it's after, and was inspired by a phrase from the great Audre Lord.

Christa Fairbrother: 26:09

Speed as fast as you can devour the miles where soft land, dark sea, meet. Never, ever. Look past the misty shoreline is how you evade it. The deep end of the pool where gravity upends, you settle weightless. Be calmed is how you succumb to it. Bring it finger food snacks, pastry dainties, pink shrimp canaps. Stuff its wide open mouth with its own tongue into choking, numb, blind oblivion is how you deal with it. Chant, sing, scream loud, rolling rumbles channeled from stars, wind, the universes bathe, bright lights that leave you cleansed. A moment's exaltation is how you transcend it.

Christa Fairbrother: 27:02

Thank you, oh my gosh, and I'm going to have links with all your information in the show notes and things like that. And do you have your own book that's published of just your own poetry, or is it just in certain publications?

Christa Fairbrother: 27:18

Yeah, it's just in journals. I have enough pieces. I have a book that I'm looking for a publisher for, so that's you know, the journey of a poet is slightly different than a yogi, but I have it on submission to different presses and I would like to have a book published. But we'll see how long it takes to get there.

Christa Fairbrother: 27:34

Yeah, yeah, Well, it's just, it's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And you know you are a published, award-winning author of several books and I wondered are you as disciplined in writing as you are in your health practices?

Christa Fairbrother: 27:52

Oh, I would say as a true aqua yogi, I am seasonal about everything in my life. Summer is busy with work and I do get less writing done. It's just the nature of life. And then fall through spring, I am able to get a lot more writing done.

MJ Waddell: 28:11

And when you are, when inspiration comes, is it, do you immediately write it down, or what's your creative process? And when you, yeah, I am.

Christa Fairbrother: 28:20

I am very much, um, I think I got this from being, you know, multitasking all the time and being a parent.

Christa Fairbrother: 28:26

It's like, yeah, if I have an idea.

Christa Fairbrother: 28:28

it just goes in the notebook, Everything goes in the notebook. I don't have to sit down, it's not a failure. I don't write a poem a day, you know, it's just whatever idea comes to me, it just goes in and.

Christa Fairbrother: 28:37

I am outing myself. I can be a little obsessive about things, so when I have an idea mulling around, it's like I can turn out a lot of notes on it in a couple days, and then that's something that is there for me to go back to when I have more time to really dedicate to, to organizing it and see. You know where I want my thoughts to go. I have done a couple residencies and those are so wonderful because you get so much dedicated time to put out a lot of work. So obviously, when I take all the notebooks on the residencies, I can get a lot done and and I do what I can. It's um, there's no reason I don't feel the reason to make the poetry some, you know, slog that I have to beat myself up over that. That ruins it.

Christa Fairbrother: 29:28

It's not something you get paid well enough to make that stressful.

MJ Waddell: 29:32

Yeah, well, yoga, writing. I'm in theater. None of it pays, but it's like you choose your passion, right? Well, I look forward to that book being published, because I can already foresee myself reading, reading a poem before a class. Yeah, and so I'm putting that, manifesting that for you. Thank you, I appreciate it. You're welcome. And so, currently, what is your favorite yoga pose, in or out of the water?

Christa Fairbrother: 30:04

I've been doing a lot of pigeons lately. I'm I part of my disease process manifests as one side of my body always gives me a lot more trouble than the other and I have been feeling that I kind of haven't been getting in the outer hip a lot on the outer left side. So I've been doing a lot of pigeons and and people will ask well, how do you do those in the water.

Christa Fairbrother: 30:26

So, uh, we don't sit down in aqua yoga, but we can make use of the pool wall so we can do a standing pigeon pose at the pool wall, and that's how I access that.

MJ Waddell: 30:38

I love it. And when I'm teaching in the pool now and you teach with noodles, you teach with several things, but basically more noodle and you know people listening I'm talking about the noodles that you get at the dollar store or at your pool supply store. And when I teach now, my students always say I never knew there was so much you could do with a noodle, and it's so much fun and it's inventive. So, yes, pigeon in the water, Any pose in the water is beautiful. And for those of you that have never been in the pool, even if you have a pool or access to a pool, I would encourage you to get a couple pool noodles and float on them. It's just, it's heavenly, it's so nice. Okay, just a couple more questions, Krista. So how do you feel about moving towards your later years and, aside from the obvious physical changes that we all experience, have you noticed anything that surprises you about moving into your later years?

Christa Fairbrother: 31:48

Yeah, I have kids kind of late. So I'm finding it interesting having, you know, teenagers while going through menopause. That's kind of an interesting challenge. And parenting has phases, you know. Anybody who's at a different stage of parenting from me, especially with older kids, is going to hear that and chuckle. So each stage of parenting has its phases and challenges. And so it's interesting to be an older parent, you know, with teens. I'm finding that interesting that when they were little and again, being an older parent, I, many women, are having their kids later these days.

Christa Fairbrother: 32:30

So it wasn't that you, you'd seemed alone. But, um, it personally feels a little different being an older parent now at this time, so that's definitely something that, uh, I wouldn't have known necessarily before. Um, and then, yes, the health challenges, those, those are very real. So that's yeah, we're that the whole joke use is wasted on the young, you know, because we don't.

Christa Fairbrother: 32:58

We don't know how good we have it, um and and so that that is an obvious thing. I do think I'm a little wiser, you know. I'm definitely kinder to myself. I am definitely more empathetic with others. I have been the sort of person that pushes pretty hard, and it is very hard when you're a perfectionist yourself, it is hard to have that grace for others. So I'm much better about that these days.

MJ Waddell: 33:28

And as far as your teaching goes, and your yoga training and things like that, where do you see yourself going in the future? Do you continue to do this as long as you can, as long as you enjoy it, or do you have any future plans for expanding?

Christa Fairbrother: 33:43

Yeah, I don't right now I'm just kind of I'm doing what I'm doing, I joke with my husband. I don't know what I'm going to do when I grow up.

Christa Fairbrother: 33:54

I had three very different careers and and this is what I do now and I really enjoy it and for now it's working. I don't have any plans on going anywhere doing anything different.

Christa Fairbrother: 34:05

And I'll, I assume I'll just do it till it doesn't work anymore.

MJ Waddell: 34:09

Awesome, great, okay, and this question was. I did not ask you previously. I ask of all my guests. Typically, the question is knowing all you learned through your life and all your experiences, what would you tell your younger self? But I like to shift the question and ask knowing all that you've learned now, with all your life experiences, what would you like to tell your older self, your future self?

Christa Fairbrother: 34:33

my future self, future self. Keep climbing the stairs, keep the knees, keep the knees. You want to keep it to one set of knees. I joke with that with my clients, but uh, yeah, there's no, you can't say that too many times love it all.

MJ Waddell: 34:53

right. Well, I want to thank you again for being a part of the Youthful, older Yogi Christa. You are a wealth of experience and wisdom and I'm just so fortunate that I've taken your training and fortunate that you've appeared on the podcast as my first celebrity guest. I wish you just the best in anything future and, again, everyone listening or watching. I'm going to put all Christa's links where you can find her and where you can train online as well. Right, you don't have to train in person. Online is doable, even if you're right now it's summertime all over, but you know. So think about it before it gets too cold up north, you know. So thank you again so much, Christa.

Christa Fairbrother: 35:45

Thank

Christa Fairbrother: 35:45

you for having me. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening.

MJ Waddell: 35:49

For

Christa Fairbrother: 35:50

more youthful and healthy information, subscribe on my website. For more youthful and healthy information, subscribe on my website, shareyogawithmjofferingtreecom and receive my monthly newsletters. Or, if you know how to navigate social media, find me on Facebook. Slash Mary Jayne Waddell. That's Jayne with a Y, j-a-y-n-e and Instagram at Mary Jayne Waddell Remember Jane with a Y. This podcast would not be possible without the help of my editor, dan Jones, from Cocoa Beach Productions. You can find Dan at CocoaBeachWebcom and, of course, thanks to my generous guests who share their time and youthful wisdom. Remember, the youthful, older Yogi podcast is presented solely for educational, inspirational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for a physician or other qualified professionals. Okay yogis, stay well, stay youthful and keep sharing yoga.