Yoga

It's a short way from physical abuses and life-threatening injuries to a peaceful mind and a healthy body. It is called yoga.

Originated from Vedic textures, yoga is a fundamental of Hinduism. This Sanskrit word, meaning “to control,” “to unite” has yoked together the West and the East in a fast-growing “yoga culture.”

“I think the reason why yoga is so popular today is that we, often times, distance away from the society and need something to bring us together. Yoga is the bond between us and the outer world,” says a first-year yoga student Ani Mirzakhanyan.

Yoga practitioners are as diverse as the reasons behind their practices.

After practicing yoga for 11 years, Emerald Green, a yoga instructor, admits that in the earlier stages of her life, she did not expect to be involved with yoga. The abuses she had to go through as a child, led to serious injuries and chronic pain.

“My back was horrible. I couldn’t stand the pain in my shoulders. I was sick of my headaches. I was on the edge of dropping out of school,” recalls Green.

The doctor gave her an option. She either had to have a surgery or take yoga classes. This is how her yoga affair started.

“I didn’t like it in the beginning. It hurt. But after my teacher approached me, I accepted the challenge.”

After teaching for several years, Green states that the main demographics are women in their late twenties to their fifties. Children and “troubled teenage girls” are among her many students as well.

“It is an absolutely different experience teaching these girls to calm down and find the awareness of their breath,” Green says. “Yoga helps them find their sense of “self.” They can understand themselves better physically and mentally.”

The demographics of yoga, however, are not limited to the groups mentioned above.

Brenda Cooper, 61, is a professor at Utah State University. A head-to-toe runner with more than 30 years of trade mill behind her back, she always found yoga “boring.”

“I tried yoga in my early days of running because I read an article in “Runner’s World” that if I did yoga, it would help me be more flexible and have faster times in the races that I competed in,” Cooper recalls. After a couple of “extremely boring classes,” she was sure she would never go back.

Years later, she had to face a tough decision. A serious hip fracture took her away from the trade mill. The only physician who believed she would be able to run again had one recovery plan: yoga.

“Finally I decided to go take 3 classes and tell my physician later that I hated it. And I loved it.”

Anusara yoga was different from what she had practiced before.

Ansura concentrates more on “opening of the human heart,” rather than the physical aspect of yoga. Instructors’ great effort to make everyone in the group feel as free as possible is an important part of yoga experience as well.

One of Brenda’s biggest concerns was her age. Everyone in the group was younger than her. The discomfort didn’t last long.

“Once we are in class, nobody watches. We are all in our little “zen” area,” says Brenda.

Yoga helps people be more flexible but there is something beyond the physical aspect of yoga: stress release and mental peace.

“Yoga is the hour and a half that I can really zone out,” Brenda says, “When I get there I am not focusing on my mom’s health or the papers I have to grade. With all the stress in my life, I can get lost in the movement and concentrate only on breathing.”

At the age of 61, Brenda can do a handstand and an armstand.