Tao doing Mayaurasana
Over a year ago I told you about 83 year old yoga instructor, Bette Calman from Williamstown, Austraila. She was leading 11 classes a week as well as completing her daily practice. While others her age are complaining about aches and pains, she is focusing on improving yet another of her yoga postures.
This is another story in the Yoga for Life series.
Tao Porchon-Lynch is a 91 year old yoga teacher currently living in Hartsdale, New York.
Tao has been practicing yoga for over 60 years and teaching yoga for the past 36 years.
She recently broke her wrist and as a result has been unable to suspend herself in full lotus and peacock pose. She had previously had a hip replacement and her doctor had told her that she would not be able to do her yoga as well as she was before. Tao did not accept this diagnosis and a year later, after practicing yoga regularly, she sent her docotor a picture of her doing full lotus.
Tao Porchon-Lynch learned yoga while growing up in India, in the former French colony of Pondicherry.
Tao Porchon-Lynch dancing
For much of her career, she danced, modeled and acted in India, France, England and California. She appeared in Hollywood movies and on television before landing a job with UniTel in the 1960s, establishing TV stations in India.
AND she’s a competitive ballroom dancer!
Tao is a living advertisement for how to tap into our human potential. She is unique in her ability to overcome the effects of aging to control her body and mind in harmony with Yoga’s principles. Tao’s philosophy is “There is nothing we cannot do if we harness the power within us.” Her yoga principles and practices will be appreciated by current and future generations.
“I’m not going to give up,” Porchon-Lynch says. “I’m going to dance and do yoga for as long as I live.”
Tao teaches discipline and control of the body and mind through Yoga. As she elevates and balances her body in classic poses, she demonstrates how to tap into the primal spark of energy that all of us receive from the universe.
CNN interviewed her recently for their CNN Money Reports. You can see her teaching yoga and competive ballroom dancing.
In 2006 the Today show interviewed her as did Prevention Magazine for their Picture of Health series.
At a youthful 91, Tao brings a delightful, childlike love of life and nature to all that she does. Prepare to be enchanted and inspired if you’re blessed to have the opportunity to meet her.
“I’m not going to give up,” she says. “I’m going to dance and do yoga for as long as I live.”
