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...

Why Practice Yoga?

          My overall experience with yoga this semester was positive. The development of my own practice has led me into more parts of life than just yoga. They say yoga is the journey of the self through the self to the self. This is true in my case.

          As a physical practice, yoga has had intended improvements on my body and overall health. The toning of muscles and increased flexibility is an obvious benefactor to this practice, but my body has more patience. I am more willing, physically, to try. I crave an active lifestyle outside of the gym. I want to explore yoga in environments that are taken for granted, such as mountains, forests, and beaches. I think these environments are constantly being cleansed by the wind, the plants, or the ocean, so they provide not only a sense of harmony but also productive workspace for the practice.

          Mentally, I am more “yoga.” I would like to attribute to yoga :
My body as a mind is more patient and so am I, or trying so to be. I am more aware of my body when I am tired or hungry or restless. I am more keen on nourishing my body as well. I am extremely inspired to feed and hydrate my body properly before, during, and after practice. I tend to be very introverted and pessimistic; however, I have recently been trying to be more positive and outgoing.

          I think the influence of yoga has also inspired me to realize that life is short and it is what we make of it. I had believed I had an understanding of that in my personal goals as I am not someone who wants to have the “ideal” lifestyle of having kids, working for 40 years, having a mortgage and things of that nature that this society glorifies. I instead prefer to travel and meet interesting people and see everything, so everyday positivity is bringing me closer to those goals. I don’t think achieving my goals would be at all a success if I am not the best person I can be during my journey to them.

          Spirituality is hard for me to summarize or reach in words, but I know I experience it everyday and have a strong faith. Spirituality can be best defined in my case as a connection to the earth and universe. I am aware of my place in the universe and on the earth, and that the ecosystem is connected. Yoga has helped me solidify this connection by the direct lines of energy we experience within our bodies during poses. This energy is directly transferred from x to and through me and passed onto x. “x” in this case being the earth and universe.

          Vinyasa as a yoga practice has been difficult for me. I think I had been on/off with my home practice for years because I lacked the strict regulation of my breathing, which is done through vinyasa. I actually really enjoyed vinyasa because it put pressure on me to work at a fast pace, although this pace is itself created by me as it is my own breath. The irony of this is that I struggled at times, but had complete control of my struggle through breathing, which I seemed to forget.

          Yoga, to me, is a journey that I have just started. I think if you really indulge yourself in the activity physically, mentally, and spiritually, then you will benefit immensely from it and better yourself as a person. The construction of a “better you” further contributes positivity and energy into the world, so yoga is a gift that continues to give. Namaste.

--Julissa Perkins

Why take a college yoga class?

          A philosophy, a science, an art, is my practice called yoga. The class this semester not only gave me the guidance to deepen my practice, you Professor, opened me to become conscious of the great complexity of my nature, and the different forces that move it. In this awareness, I stand with awe and appreciation for our collective nature, and my part in it.

          I entered this course with a great desire to attain a home practice, and did it! I found the structure of the class extremely helpful. Though I was not new to yoga, I had a tough go at gaining traction. The knowledge I was seeking was too far outside myself. From day one, the class was invited to openly share. I enjoyed the exercise we did the first day of introductions. We were to tell one truth and one lie. I thought it was so excellent to be in that feeling with strangers, the sensation of not wanting to lie and recognizing the inherent desire to be kind and open to a fellow. The example of authenticity and safe container to be yourself set the tone. The goal was clear: connect with yourself and be good to yourself. In keeping a yoga journal, I can see that I only had a hint of myself, not having yet learned to distinguish the different parts of my being, as they were usually lumped together by the mind. Yoga has given me a way to embrace my whole self through physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development.

          The wisdom presented through the course ignited the curiosity to understand fully how a daily practice can guide my healthy living. I enjoyed each article handed out in class. I was often surprised how the subjects or content of many of them, came at such serendipitous times, as if to speak to my current situation. One example of this was the article titled “How to Recognize the Beauty of Being Broken”. This was of a woman sharing her brokenness and that it was O.K.! So much of what this woman said was that she wasn’t where she necessarily wanted to be in her third decade of life, she feels wounded still from experiences and that some days, the best way to proceed is by going into that pain. One generally comes out seeing the beauty and awareness that all should be cherished and approached with a gentle hand. I wrote a journal entry that said “I relate to her soul as a wounded healer, living, breathing and appreciate what I have come to learn in my 30’s ~ I AM , WE ARE.”

          The yoga sutras have been something I have come to look to for guidance, for meditation, for observations of my actions. When looking at Patanjali’s Ashtanga System (“The Eight Limbs”), I am reminded of the alternative ways to act and be. I am reminded to accept where I am at, and take the time to notice what feels right, to me. I am reminded that everything has cycles, and I am part of them. I can choose to do yoga to practice truthfulness, self-discipline, purity, contentment, breath control, and so much more. I am aware that these practices have much power. My individual healing spreads out to my sphere of people and beyond.

          I have witnessed my children grow more content, from the peace I find from my morning practice. I see their eyes more easily connect with mine, or is it the other way around? Yoga has given my family Samadhi, intuitive enlightenment, state of bliss. We are fully integrated in the essence of the divine, and our love.

--Cynthia Neuendorf, Fall 2015