Why Teach a College Yoga Class?

The students! Each class I start with an article or an exercise about yoga, meditation or health. For the last class, I shared with them, not thoughts from a well-renown yoga teacher or writer, but their thoughts that they shared with me. I hope they know they can learn from each other as well as from their own experiences. Perhaps you can too? --

          I loved the quote by Pema Chodron that was mentioned:
“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” -- I found myself thinking a lot about this quote, and the article, especially when meditating. I never thought I would take away from a community college gym class the idea that we are all imperfect in this world, but acceptance of these imperfections is when we will find true happiness...

          This yoga class this semester taught me a lot on finding my inner self and loving it for who I am. If there’s one thing I took away, it was to love yourself, the people around you, and loving yourself enough to take care of your body...

          I felt a difference when we started meditation and incorporating mindfulness into our practice. For once in my academic career, the assignments given to me were to take time out of my day to better myself. The assignments did not grade you on how well you were progressing through the poses, but they were reflections of how you FELT! Never have I had such a valuable assignment. I began to learn to listen to my body, and accept that there was a limit. More than that, I learned that having a limit was okay- I’d get to where I want to be with time...

          I found my favorite guided meditations to be the body scan meditations. I use a similar method when I am meditating on my own, so to hear a guided version in a group meditation was both familiar and new at the same time...

          The breathing exercises weren’t meant to just relax, even though very relaxing when performed. I soon learned it was more than that. It was a release of built up tension and stress from the mind and the soul. The breathing exercises help you to inhale the positives of your life and release the negatives. I was finally able to start understanding what yoga was truly about: physical workouts that help keep our body healthy as well as spiritual workouts...

          I was looking for a class where I could move my body, stretch my muscles, and then in the end, relax with a nice savasana. I believe I finally found that this semester at Suffolk County Community College. Throughout the semester, I realized I was learning a lot more than just yoga, I was learning about myself...

          My original definition of yoga was fancy stretching… I figured because I had 2 metal rods and 23 screws in my spine that this class would pose a struggle. I came to find the class as a challenge, but not as bad as I thought at all. After class, I would find myself sore and sweating, and my soreness would not just last until the end of class, it would last most of the week. Each week, I would improve my stretches, hold them longer or go further in the stretch. I found because I was improving them that it was rewarding...