GRAND Magazine - November/December 2018 - 19

cover
not your age. It's your fascia." The connective tissue in
your body gets molded according to the way you move
and how you sit over time. We're born with perfect
posture. Look at a two-year old. Their behind is behind
them. When they sit, they are ramrod straight - not bent
over a cell phone. They call that posture "the j- spine."
But we're taught to roll our pelvis in. So I'd say unroll it.
As for yoga - I love it but make sure you're doing it
the right way. Too many people who do it the wrong
way end up with total hip replacements.
A lot of people love running but they shouldn't be
doing it on pavement. We were designed to run on the
earth. In fact, I'd advise people to walk barefoot on the
earth more often, to get out in nature more, to be in
the sun more. I'm not talking baking in the noonday
sun, but dawn or dusk. Protect your face but the let
the sun do its job to produce vitamin D in the fat layer
of our skin. It will make you feel so much better. Those
are just a couple of things that are easy to do.
GRAND: You talk about self-care and self-development. We often hear about self-care - such things as
taking time for ourselves and trying to reduce stress. But
self-development may need some more explanation
because that often becomes an issue once women have
finished raising their children or after they've had a long
career. How do they develop themselves?
DR NORTHRUP: Especially with the empty nest
thing, right? It's so tempting for women to get back
into caring for others because they don't know what
they themselves want or need. In my own life, when I
went through a divorce I didn't really know what colors
I liked or what furniture I liked because my husband
had a lot of opinions and I went along.
So what you need to do to develop yourself is
to determine what lights you up. And if you don't
know yet, then go and be with someone who's doing
19 GRAND

NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2018

something that lights them up and borrow it for a while.
GRAND: I know one thing that you found to light you
up was Argentine tango. How did that happen?
DR. NORTHRUP: I'd always wanted to dance but never
had the chance. There was only one dance teacher in my
town and I remember my father coming up the driveway with
my tap shoes that arrived literally one week before the dance
teacher left town. Many years later, I was walking down a street
and looked through a window to see a couple doing Argentine
tango. And I thought, "Oh my God - that's it." At first I tried to
get a friend and my sister and their husbands to do it with me.
We took some lessons, but nobody would practice, and we
stopped. A few years later, I just decided, "You know what - I
want to do this. Nobody is going to help me do this. I just have
to make the time and do it." And I want to say it was harder than
medical school. Learning Argentine tango at midlife - that's hard
because nobody cares that you have a New York Times best
seller. Everybody's equal on the dance floor.
GRAND: Did Argentine tango teach you anything about
life?
DR. NORTHRUP: At the dances, I used to see women
with sourpusses on them at the side lines complaining that
no one was asking them to dance. And I thought, well, that is
clearly not a good strategy. I learned that you need to present some kind of welcoming countenance to get anywhere
in life. You especially need to know that as a woman. So, I just
stood on the side lines and I smiled and eventually I learned
Argentine tango.
GRAND: After this interview there may be a lot more
people signing up for Argentine tango because it sounds
wonderful, but I'm sure your point is that for each of us,
there's something we can find for ourselves just by being a
bit brave.

Dr. Northrup demonstating her fabulous tango skills

Click to continue reading interview
Continued on next page

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GRAND Magazine - November/December 2018

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