Barbara Currie - Look 15 Years Younger: The 15-Minute-a-Day Yoga Plan

Since the beginning of time, man has searched for that magical something to give him eternal youth.

Today this searching is at an all-time high, with billions being spent on miracle get young face creams, neck creams, eye creams, cosmetic surgery, botox injections, collagen implants and facials, all with the ultimate quest of looking and feeling younger and halting the advance of the years.

But why do we want to be and look younger? When we were young, did we appreciate it? Didnt we curse the spots and pimples, the lack of self-esteem, the school exams, relationship problems, etc? We had unlined skin, but did we appreciate that? Didnt we cover it with make-up and try to look years older than we were? So what is it that we yearn for about youth? Do we really want to put the clock back and go through all those years again? I doubt it!

George Bernard Shaw once said, Youth is wasted on the young? Isnt what we are searching for something quite, quite different? Wouldnt we rather keep our present age but have the radiance, amazing energy, excitement, flexibility and agility of youth? Wouldnt we like to get rid of the sagging muscles, aches and pains, excess weight, diminished eyesight and hearing and memory loss and replace it with a toned, firm and beautiful body, amazing energy, glowing, unwrinkled skin and improved memory, eyesight and hearing? Wouldnt we like to be able to stay calm under stress, sleep really well at night and wake with that good-to-be-alive feeling and keep making new goals and planning new ventures regardless of our age?

If you are answering yes to any of the above, then yoga is for you. I became a yoga addict at my very first yoga class over 30 years ago. I was stiff, tired, tense and out of sorts when I enrolled to try yoga for the very first time, but the sight of my teacher, then in her late fifties, will stay in my memory for ever. She was perfectly toned and, as she stood to demonstrate posture after posture, she did it with the flexibility, ease and body shape of an 18 year old.

She didnt look tired or tense, but radiated a wonderful zest for life that was contagious and I left my first class walking taller and feeling better than I had felt for ages.

As I continued to learn yoga, from time to time I received some jolts or wake-up calls as ancient legends and parables were recited to us teaching us age-old truths. This is one of my favourites. It goes something like this:

Once upon a time there was a king with the most amazing palaces, beautiful gardens and parks, servants to cater for his every need and riches beyond his wildest dreams. He did not, however, enjoy good health or happiness. He desired these two qualities more than anything else in life, and sent his servants out far and wide to find someone with the secret that they could share with him. Eventually, after many, many years of combing his kingdom, his servants found an old woman in the mountains who made a very special herbal brew. The King sent for her immediately, but she refused to come, saying that the brew had to be made freshly and the herbs grew only around her small house in the mountains. So one day the King, reluctantly, went to see her. She insisted that he stayed in her house alone with her for a least a week, and again, reluctantly, the King agreed. The old woman gave him simple fresh food and took him for long walks in the beautiful mountains that surrounded her home. They watched the sunrise and sunset and marvelled at the bright starry skies. Each night before bed she dosed him with the special herbal mix, saying it would bring him health and happiness.

The King slept better than he had done in years. At the end of the week, he said happily that the herbal brew had worked wonders and he needed to take a large supply back with him to his palace, for which he would reward her handsomely. The old woman replied, There was nothing in the brew that had any special power at all. The secret of happiness and health is and has always been within ourselves. All she had done was reveal this to him.

Isnt this what we are really looking for? When you are happy and healthy inside, your face and body glow with a youthful inner radiance that no amount of expensive face creams or cosmetic surgery can give you. The Yogis of ancient India realized this well over 5,000 years ago.