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Serving Women 50+ with Online Yoga Therapeutics & Meditation — Affirming LGBTQ+ Well-Being — Based in Lackawanna County, PA, including Carbondale, Mayfield, Archbald, Scranton, and Clarks Summit — & students worldwide.
Yoga Therapeutics & Meditation for Beginners
Joy Zazzera'a Blog
Welcome to your trusted hub for yoga therapeutics, meditation, and body-wise support.
If you’ve ever searched online for help with yoga or meditation—and felt more overwhelmed than empowered—you’re not alone. This blog is here to simplify the science, remove the guesswork, and teach you how yoga and meditation can truly support your body and nervous system.
Here, you’ll find clear, compassionate guidance rooted in therapeutic yoga, meditation made simple, massage-informed self-care, and my lived experience. Whether you’re navigating joint replacements, reduced mobility, chronic stress, or just beginning yoga and meditation after 50, this space offers real solutions—practical tools you can trust to feel better, move with confidence, and build a sustainable home practice.
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Yin, Yang & the Five Elements
Many women come to yoga and meditation later in life not because they want to perform, sweat, or push harder — but because something feels off. Energy fluctuates. Sleep changes. Stress lands differently. Old injuries speak louder. Motivation isn’t what it used to be — or it shows up inconsistently.
A way to understand the body as dynamic, responsive, and shaped by seasons, emotions, and lived experience — not just symptoms in isolation — is through Traditional Chinese Medi
Joy Zazzera
Dec 16, 20255 min read
Considerations When Your New to Yoga After 50
Teaching yoga is not an advanced form of personal practice. And being a “beginner” in midlife is not the same as being new to yoga at 25, or even 35.Learning to practice yoga and learning to teach yoga are related—but they are not interchangeable.
And neither automatically prepares someone to guide bodies that have lived, adapted, compensated, healed, and changed over decades.
Joy Zazzera
Dec 7, 20254 min read
Savasana as Medicine: How Stillness Supports Healing and Stress Recovery
If you’ve taken a yoga class before, chances are you are familiar with Savasana as the final relaxation pose that concludes the movement experience. But Savasana is not the end of practice. It is where practice becomes part of you, and it can also serve as a stand-alone experience.
Joy Zazzera
Dec 1, 20253 min read
What Studying a Human Cadaver Changed About How I Teach Yoga
As a movement teacher — a Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Specialist — and Licensed Massage Therapist, my work centers on therapeutic application: helping people move, heal, and restore trust in bodies that have been injured, altered, or changed by time, surgery, and stress. That responsibility carries weight. And it requires more than memorizing structures from books or listening to lectures about the human form. This and my owned unconventional lived experiences brought me into
Joy Zazzera
Nov 13, 20256 min read
Why Consistency Counts: The Science Behind a Home Yoga Routine (and How to Make It Stick).
If you’ve ever sworn, “This is it—I’m prioritizing my health!” only to slide back into old patterns days later, you are so not alone. Those lapses can sting—leaving shame, self-doubt, and the worry that maybe you just don’t have enough willpower. But inconsistency isn’t a character flaw; it’s a systems problem. The brain burns energy on daily decision-making, and when every practice depends on motivation and executive effort, we fatigue fast. This blog offers some good news a
Joy Zazzera
Aug 16, 202510 min read
Yoga for a Body That’s Changed: A Therapeutic Approach for Women 50+
If you’ve been trying to heal or find confidence with yoga by attending a weekly group class, you might feel stuck. That’s because these classes are designed for the general population—not for people managing joint replacements, chronic pain, fatigue, or nervous system dysregulation.
One of the most transformative lessons I’ve learned (and now teach) is the “little and often” approach. You don’t need a 60 or 90-minute class to see progress.
Joy Zazzera
Aug 2, 20258 min read
How to Find the Right Yoga Teacher
Finding the right yoga teacher and style isn’t just about taste or preference. It’s about trust. It’s about alignment—not just physical, but philosophical. You deserve to know what kind of experience you’re stepping into, especially if you’ve tried other classes that didn’t quite feel right, or you’re approaching yoga with physical limitations, stress, or hesitatio
Joy Zazzera
Jun 8, 20255 min read
Yoga Therapeutics as Personalized Medicine
Discover the transformative power of Yoga Therapeutics as personalized medicine. Learn how Yoga Therapeutics supports healing and resilience.
Joy Zazzera
Feb 16, 20254 min read
Understanding Fascia Tightness: What It Means & How to Support It
You may have heard that your fascia is “tight,” “wound up,” or “needs to be released.” These phrases are common in wellness spaces—but are they accurate? What does it actually mean when we feel stiff, restricted, or like we need to “stretch something out”?
This blog explores what’s really going on beneath the surface—and how therapeutic movement, stretching, and self-massage can help.
Joy Zazzera
Feb 18, 20244 min read
8 Fascia Facts Every Yoga Beginner Needs to Know
As we age, we accumulate molecules called AGEs (Advanced Glycation End-products). These form when sugars bind with proteins in the tissue and can: (1. )Make fascia more crystalline and rigid; (2.)
Reduce elasticity; (3.) Contribute to the “stuck” feeling in tissues;
But AGEs are very hydrophilic—meaning they pull in more water, not less. So older adults might actually have more hydration in their interstitial fascia, despite feeling stiffer.
Joy Zazzera
Feb 4, 20245 min read
Yoga's discomfort zone and what it means to step into it.
If your reaction to trying yoga elicits a mindset that you don’t have an able-body for yoga, or you can't balance, consider reading on.
Joy Zazzera
Dec 14, 20225 min read
Hormones, Fascia, and Yoga: What Ovulation and Menopause Mean for Your Practice
Fascial changes in response to hormones is a topic that fascinates me and is now gaining attention in scientific research, especially...
Joy Zazzera
Dec 10, 20225 min read
How Stretching and Myofascial Release Improve Fascia Health, Mobility, and Internal Wellness
The human body is a complex tension-integral system where push and pull have a win-win relationship. More simply, the body is bones connected by soft tissue within a net of continuous tension creating stability without direct contact. When the tension network shifts, it affects the entire system and has impacts on efficiency of movement, and propensity to injury.
Joy Zazzera
Dec 7, 20226 min read
Yoga Sharpens Brain Health: Memory, Focus & Neuroplasticity
As we age, our brain actually atrophies in function. But did you know that practicing yoga as a regular part of your lifestyle can ...
Joy Zazzera
Oct 16, 20226 min read
Re-learning how to relax.
Increasingly things that feel easy and may not require a lot of brain power are often being confused with relaxation. Our learned...
Joy Zazzera
Jul 31, 20222 min read
Motivation for Movement Snacks
Hungry to move easier but don’t have much time or motivation to adopt a traditional workout regime? Or maybe you’re not sure how to work...
Joy Zazzera
Jan 21, 20223 min read
Ultimate Self-Care: The stillness and sensory experience of Restorative Yoga + Meditation
In the age of movement, nothing is more critical than stillness. Because we already to some degree understand that overdoing leads to...
Joy Zazzera
Sep 6, 20214 min read
CAPTURING PRESENCE: In the space of quiet contemplation, insight & clarity are revealed.
When I first set out to open my own yoga business, I knew ahead of time details that I didn’t want to over-look.
Joy Zazzera
Aug 26, 20214 min read
"What Kind of Yoga Do You Teach?"
I was recently asked by a new client after having taking a few classes with me to describe the style of yoga I teach. While my yoga is...
Joy Zazzera
Aug 18, 20218 min read
Relief for Feeling Locked Up + Untwisty Around the Ribcage
If you are feeling locked up around the rib cage and twisting from side to side feels restrictive here’s a remedy! Try this myofascial...
Joy Zazzera
Mar 15, 20213 min read
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