After seeing yoga in the peace quad, computer science junior Amorè Clark’s interest was piqued, leading him to want to participate.
Upon joining the group, he followed the lead of the instructor and remained with them for the duration of the session. It was his first time trying yoga, but it would not be his last.
“Never in my 20 years of being alive I thought that I would do yoga,” Clark said. “I just kind of gave it a try, and I’ve been enjoying it so far.”
Clark was one of many students who began taking one of the three yoga classes offered on the second floor of the University Sports Complex.
Yoga instructor Nancy Maguire-Rambo guided students in her semiweekly “Vin to Yin” classes for an hour with the focus on Vinyasa yoga, a flow that emphasized meditation, movement, and breathing work/control. The purpose for these classes were more than just an exercise class for Maguire-Rambo.
“I wanted to provide the students with a safe place to go inside, and realize their own truth,” Maguire-Rambo said.
Each Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30, the multileveled classes enabled students to go at their own pace. This aspect of her class made students, like Amorè, feel comfortable with approaching different yoga poses.
“She allows you to go to what your body allows you to go,” Clark said. “Everyone has different bodies, so what I cannot do, other people can do, and you can have leeway with it.”
The yoga classes provide students with an outlet to de-stress from the daily challenges that they endured.
“Today, for example, I was angry for no reason,” Clark said. “The class just clears my mind. We do a lot of breathing and a lot of stretching, so by the end of class, my mind is not bothered by anything.”
Maguire-Rambo believes that yoga is helpful for anyone and hopes to continue to guide people to “find their inner peace.”
“I think the most important benefit for college students as well as any of my students, faculty, staff, or the community, is to be in the present moment, to still the monkey mind, and of course, to have a sense of community,” she said.
