Yoga provides stress management
Mt. Hood Community College offers 97 different activity and PE classes in various forms: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. Seven are waitlisted including two 7:30 am yoga classes. Daryle Broadsword, physical education department chair, said, “Many of the same classes are cross-listed because the instructors teach students at the same time who have different skill sets.” Examples include weight lifting, karate, yoga, and golf. In classes such as yoga, students go along at their own pace. Yoga is gaining in popularity as the benefits outweigh the strangeness. Sanja Pearson, a MHCC yoga instructor, who has been doing yoga since she was 12 years old, tries to teach her students to understand that yoga is not a religion, it’s a science. “Yoga is for everybody,” Pearson said. Pearson contributes yoga to saving her life when she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia over 10 years ago. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome characterized by debilitating pain in the muscles and soft tissues surrounding joints. Alex Grazda, a member of MHCC’s track team, said he’s practicing yoga because he has a lot of sports injuries and feels like its working. “It’s different…but it’s relaxing,” Grazda said. Kari Stout, who has been practicing for more than year, agrees that it’s relaxing and adds, “It helps your concentration and it’s good for your mind.” A few forms of yoga include, Ashtanga, Bikram, Iyengar, Kripalu, Kundalini, Sivananda, Anusara, Yin Yoga, Charka Yoga, Yoga Fit, are just of few traditions of Hatha yoga that have been around for thousands of years. Pearson teaches Iyengar, which is a traditional form of Hatha yoga. Iyengar yoga was developed by B.K.S. Iyengar of Pune, India. It’s taught worldwide and his approach is outlined in details, in his seminal life’s work, “Light on Yoga.” Iyengar, who is in his eighties, is still alive and his son, Prashant and daughter, Geeta, are among the leading proponents of their father’s style. Iyengar-style hatha yoga in its purest form is highly disciplined. It focuses on precise alignment and extension of the skeletal system from the base of the spine to the fingers and toes. The postures, Marichyasana (seated twist) are, Side Angle Stretch, Triangle, Warrior Pose, and Savansa (final relaxation), among thousands of possible poses and may include props to accommodate different levels of practice. A variety of props besides the traditional yoga mat include a block, wall ropes, bolsters, blankets, sandbags, yoga straps, chairs, and special back supports. All are used to modify poses to help students maintain postural structural alignment for each pose. Iyengar postures tend to be more static rather than flowing which lends itself more to Ashtanga, also known as Power Yoga. Kundalini yoga refers to the life force of energy that’s inside us. All yoga on its deepest level, involves generating energy. Kundalini focuses on breath, postures, meditation and relaxation to clear energy channels throughout the body. Vigorous Kundalini postures strengthen the body and mind. Additional yoga benefits include mental clarity, it adds to the day by giving participants long lasting energy, and many of the postures improve the body’s clock by invigorating organs Pearson summarized. Any yoga practice wouldn’t be complete without a savansa, the final relaxation pose. In savansa, you lie flat on the floor on a mat. Close your eyes let your body relax, and breathe. All yoga practices can be enhanced by beginning or ending the practice with meditation or breath. The breath in yoga is known as the fuel of life and is traditionally called “prana.” Perhaps the most significant benefit of yoga is that it’s transforming. It teaches discipline and the rewards are attention and focus allowing us to chip away at mind blocks. Big rewards. Consider this: if yoga helps improve stamina, facilitates the healing of injuries, puts you in a better mood, improves mental clarity, it might help with your grades. It’s not too late to sign up. Registration for fall recreation classes is open until Oct. 6. Namaste!
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