Steady, Comfortable, Posture

        On April 11 the Students of Yoga at West Georgia, SOYA, had a “Hold That Pose Yoga-thon” in Love Valley. SOYA is a student organization that helps to teach about yoga and all that surrounds it. Yoga does not happen just on a mat but in your interaction in and around the community as well. SOYA does fundraisers, community service and discussion groups. The group likes to focus on the benefits of yoga and how it can positively change people’s lives for those who are willing to learn. 

         For the “Hold That Pose Yoga-thon” people came out and held different poses for a certain amount of time. People were given some options on some poses they could do. Some are recommended for one minute and some are for five minutes. The people of SOYA running the event helped time people and also helped them correctly hold the poses.  

        “There’s lots of different poses you can do and when you hold a pose for a longer amount of time you get more benefits out of it,” said yoga instructor Andrea Laubstein.  

       Holding a pose helps to increase circulation, build strength, and improve flexibility and breathing. The right posture can have therapeutic qualities. Yoga can help decrease back pain, help with headaches, overall tension and digestion. When holding poses, it makes you think less about the world around you and lets your body slow down. When your mind is calm, it helps the body let go and relax.  

        “The tendency in yoga today and life today is to move really quickly so we’re trying to have people slow down a little bit and get some stress relief by holding poses,” said Laubstein. 

         At the event they had posters set up showing different poses you can do, how to do them and how long to hold them. The event also had a drawing where people who came to the event could enter by writing their name and email on the back of a bunch of tickets, having the chance to win many cool prizes that dealt with yoga, relaxation and stress.  

         SOYA is different than simply a normal yoga class. The REC Center has yoga classes on campus multiple times a week, while SOYA meets on Tuesday evenings with many different local yoga teachers. They do practices on poses and the correct way to do them as well as have discussion groups on yoga philosophy and do community service events. SOYA recently had a Yoga talk called “The Subtle Aspects and Practices of classical Yoga” where a yoga teacher came and spoke about the philosophy on the consciousness of the mind on and off of the yoga mat. SOYA is a great organization to join and find a way to step out of the real world for a little bit by focusing on your breathing.