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(Bernice Bates) Take a deep breath and h-m-m-m-m.
(Bernice Bates) It's a part of my life now for 50 years.
I've taught thousands of classes.
However you can move your hands.
We have a visitor that comes to see us all the time,
do you know his name?
(class) Arthritis!
(Bernice Bates) My name is Bernice Bates, I'm 91 years old,
and the Guinness Book of Record has named me as the oldest
yoga teacher in the world.
Yoga at first in our country was thought of as sleeping
on a bed of hot nails or walking on hot coals.
I found out it was the best exercise ever because it
involves the body, the soul, and the mind.
Keep your soles of your feet together and push them
out a little farther.
It's a different kind of an exercise than we're used to
here in our country.
We are all competitive in anything we do.
They get on a treadmill and gggrrr,gggrrr and
they're so sweaty and tired when they're through.
Yoga builds energy; we don't deplete it.
The seniors who take the class like it, because it is
slow motion and non-competitive and there always is
another choice if they can't do the pose.
(laughing)
...and then come up.
I've never had a picture taken like that before!
(class) laughing
(Bernice Bates) If they can't get up and down of the floor
they can sit and do it in a chair.
I start in bed in the morning before I even get up.
And I can walk to the kitchen and get my breakfast instead of
dragging my feet because I started my circulation going.
I don't go to the doctor but once or twice a year
for a checkup.
...and lets do the same thing on the left.
All my life I've tried to honor my body.
I was a swimming instructor.
I taught PE classes, doing the things that God intends us to do
to keep such a beautiful body.
Because if your body says, "Uh-uh," you stop.
You don't want to hurt yourself, someday you'll get there.
And we have a saying, "I can't do that- YET."
I think I've attained this age because I have done yoga.
Gives you peace just like your church does.
♪ (music box) ♪
I go to Lakewood United Methodist Church down
in St. Petersburg.
I taught yoga down at the church.
My family is my church family.
I was born in 1920, it was a tough life.
My father abandoned the family.
My mother had problems and couldn't take care of us.
The last foster family that I lived with took me to church,
and I met the boy that I finally married in that church.
A good marriage, 62 years, three wonderful children.
My husband Bob died about eight and a half years ago and I find
that this yoga program really helped me understand and go on.
I still miss him very, very much, but I know that someday
we'll both meet in heaven,
and we'll be together for eternity.
Make a fist, tight, tense open it up and relax it...
(Bill Dickson) She's an incredible person.
I would like to be able to picture myself doing what Bernie
does in 24 years when I'm 91.
(Norma Callahan) I'm 77 and I feel like a kid next to her.
She's an inspiration.
(Bernice Bates) Do you feel like you've had a workout?
And I thank you all for coming.
(class) clapping