Honors Yoga Workshop

                     When finals were approaching last Decemeber, it would be safe to say that stress was creeping through the students’ bodies with the sole intention of crippling their minds. Aching for something to combat this stress, a student will search various means that prove counterproductive. Thankfully, the Pforzheimer Honors College opened its arms and put forward a lending hand.
                  On December 3, 2009, the Pforzheimer Honors College hosted a yoga event in the Goldstein Fitness Center. Usually, just the thought of bending my body into any yoga pose would stress me out! But on the contrary, yoga put my body in a deep relaxation, a pleasure my muscles have never felt before. Many students from the Pforzheimer Honors College attended the event, giving yoga a try for the first time in their young lives. Even the faculty advisor, Christopher Walther, gave yoga an opportunity to combat some of his own stress!
                  Writer Melanie Haiken once said, “Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight-or-flight mode.” I am sure that every student engaged in the yoga workout would agree with Ms Haiken and what she had to say about yoga. Having a great instructor also helps immensely, and Ms Laurice Nemetz could not have done a better job. Filling the mind of each and every student in the room with confidence, she enabled many of us to conquer a common fear: that we lack the ability to accomplish something new
                   Overall,the students battled their stress, but what made the event even more meaningful was the fact that if anyone in that room had felt any sort of melancholy prior to the event, for forty-five minutes, that feeling was gone, and for forty-five minutes peace was within an arm’s reach.