Winter Issue 2023/2024, Living Power Magazine
When Cynthia Ferebee retired after a more than 30-year career as a teacher and assistant principal, she knew she wanted to stay active.
“When I retired, I told myself I was not going to sit home and do nothing,” she recalls. Living in Durham, Ferebee says she found the Durham Center for Senior Life, where she encountered no shortage of pursuits from playing cards with friends to taking yoga classes. The latter led her to discover a new passion.
“I fell in love with yoga,” she says. “And after doing yoga a couple of years, I decided to get certified to teach and trained at Duke Integrative Medicine. I’ve been teaching a beginning yoga class at the Durham Center for Senior Life since 2010.”
But yoga isn’t Ferebee’s only athletic activity. Prior to retirement, she ran and competed in 5K races, and once she wrapped up her career, she added biking and swimming to the mix. Cycling and swimming led Ferebee to compete in local, state, and national Senior Games. Akin to the Olympics, the Senior Games hosts athletic competitions for those age 50 and older.
“When I heard about the Senior Games, I knew I wanted to participate,” she says. “I even went to the national event in Birmingham in 2017 and came in 7th place in cycling.” Ferebee says participating in athletics and other activities not only improves her physical health, but it also feeds her mentally and emotionally, too.
“I have a support network with my Scrabble buddies, my meditation buddies, my biking buddies, and my swimming buddies,” she says. “I have people I can talk to and have fun with, and that helps keep my mind sharp because I have an outlet.”