This 97-Year-Old Yoga Instructor Isn’t Stopping Anytime Soon

For 97-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch, retirement isn’t in her plan.

Porchon-Lynch, who will be 98 next month, teaches yoga full time in Westchester, New York. All together, Porchon-Lynch teaches about eight classes per week.

Porchon-Lynch first got interested in yoga in 1926, but at the time it was frowned upon for girls to do yoga.

“I saw boys on the beach making shapes with their bodies and thought it was a new game,” Porchon-Lynch shared with ABC News. “My aunt said it was, ‘Yoga and unladylike,’ and I said, ‘If boys can do it, I can do it.’”

However, Porchon-Lynch took on the sport and eventually made it part of her everyday life. She describes yoga as “nature unfolding” inside of her.

Porchon-Lynch also shared that yoga taught her “to tune into the breath of life” and credits her longevity to it.

“What you put in your mind materializes,” she shared. “I don’t put fear or decay in my mind. Nature constantly recycles itself and it teaches us that we can recycle ourselves.”

Porchon-Lynch has found ways to incorporate yoga into her everyday life, remembering to mediate and relax everyday.

“My life is my meditation. I’ll stop my car and watch a flock of geese go by,” she said. “At night, I often do a shoulder stand to reverse the circulation in my legs and I massage my hands and feet to move the energy. You age when the energy stagnates in your hands and feet.”

After all of these years of yoga, Porchon-Lynch says she is still inspired by the craft.

“I’m going to teach yoga until I dance my way to the next planet,” she said.

Porchon-Lynch was named the world record holder of the Oldest Living Yoga Teacher by Guinness World Record in 2012.