Being free to become a total babe

YOGA

Recently, I ran into a woman who was wearing sunglasses in a restaurant — at night. I didn't think much about it, except for the chorus of the Corey Hart song "Sunglasses at Night" running endlessly through my head.

(If you remember this song and had a crush on Corey Hart, you are my age. How does it feel?)

It turns out that I used to work with this woman, and I remember liking her very much. She lifted up her sunglasses to reveal stitches from having just had her eyes done. She was almost sheepish about it. It didn't bother me. If I were the type to say, "You go, girl," I would have. But fewer people look more foolish than I do saying, "You go, girl."

I understand that, as a yogi and a modern woman, I am supposed to embrace the aging process and be proud of my years and my crow's feet and the long-term effects of gravity on the female body.

I should be prepared to shout my age from the rooftops and be grateful that my body is so capable, even at my age.

I am grateful that my body is in better condition now than it was when I was 25. But am I going to tell you how old I turned Dec. 7? No. No. No.

I saw in US Weekly magazine that "American Idol" judge and professional jerk Simon Cowell admitted to having Botox injections. Like we didn't know. Like everyone else in Hollywood isn't doing it. Like I'm in any position to judge. Is this even news anymore?

Certainly, I am more comfortable in my own skin now than I ever was before I began my yoga practice. I grew to actually enjoy flat-chestedness. I was proud of what wasn't there, just as I became proud of my very prominent arm muscles ("man arms," according to a man I know; "the envy of most women," as I have come to realize).

Before yoga, I would never have looked in the mirror and thought: "I am a total babe." I have to admit that I sometimes do this now. My brother calls it "not fighting the hotness." I call it the result of years of yoga and therapy.

The point is, we all want to be comfortable in our own skin. We endure fad diets and boring, painful exercise and weight-loss capsules that "may cause hard-to-control gas." (I'm not kidding about that. I actually read that in a flier.)

Then we find something wonderful like yoga and we are madly in love with how it makes us look and feel, and our bodies are stronger and more flexible and our minds are clearer and less stressed. We are happier and, often, in better physical and emotional condition than we were 10, 15, even 20 years ago.

And then we look closer and are maybe not so happy about the depth of our crow's feet and smile lines, or the latitude to which the chest has sunk, or the way not all the skin bounces back to where it was before the babies came along. And it can be a distraction from loving yourself totally.

So I say: If you want to have a few things nipped and tucked or lifted and filled, do it. If it is something that bothers you, and you can have it fixed, why not do it? Just because you practice yoga doesn't mean you are not allowed to have some work done. No one is going to kick you out of a yoga class because you have Restylane in your face. If it makes you feel better about yourself, it is totally worth it.

I have seen the warnings on television of people addicted to plastic surgery, like that woman who wants to look like a cat. "Feline" is not the first word I would pick. And, of course, all procedures have their dangers. If you are looking to plastic surgery to fill an emotional void, then perhaps therapy is where your money would be better spent.

While I will not shout my age from the rooftops, I will proudly announce that, if you average out the ages of all the parts of my body now, I am actually quite young. Through yoga, I was able to fall in love with the way my body can move and change shape, and the way my mind can be clear and calm. But with the help of a few wonderful doctors, I have been able to achieve even more. First, I loved myself inside, and now, I don't even try to fight the hotness.

Suzanne Gannon is a yoga instructor in the Charleston area. Reach her at suzygannonyoga@yahoo.com.