Summer Yoga offerings!

FREE OUTDOOR YOGA WITH LORETTA this Saturday June 2! This Saturday is my birthday. Woo-hoo! My gift to you is to celebrate with yoga outdoors at Highbanks Metropark at 9:30AM in Oak Coves Picnic area. Join me in a partially shady area near the first picnic area on your right near restrooms (pictoral directions below). This class kicks off three Saturday classes at Highbabnks Metropark on Saturdays at 9:30. This slow flow yoga class is outdoors so we can truly salute the sun!   

Also beginning next week, Tuesdays at noon in the Norman Vincent Peale chapel on OWU campus. Very happy to continue classes at Kinsale Golf and Country Club on Mondays at 1pm, Dublin Rec. Center on Monday at 7pm and Thursdays at 6:30 and 7:30 and at Verizon Wireless on Wednesdays.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement. I have some openings for your summer gatherings. What a  fun  activity to add to your family reunion, wedding shower, or party.

I'm also collaborating with The Duke of Fork Personal Chef Service, Royally good vegetarian cuisine made in your home. The Duke and I can add a wonderfully healthy twist to your next gathering. More info here: http://thedukeoffork.com/

Detailed directions to yoga class in Highbanks Metropark on Saturday:

Enter Highbanks, take first left turn to Oak Cove Picnic area:

Drive to the third small parking area. You'll see this restroom and play equipment on your right.

This is the yoga site, Oak Cove Picnic area. It is a nice grassy area that is quite level.

You can choose partial or full shade.

After yoga on my birthday, we'll enjoy a sample of foods created by The Duke of Fork!

(I gave the spot a test run this morning from 9:30 to 10:30. It was fab.)

Please just grab that yoga mat and meet me. Thanks.

College student honest opinions about yoga

This is the end of my ninth year teaching yoga to college students at Ohio Wesleyan University. The classes numbers have ranged in size from eleven to 40 students. The students experience moving yoga starting on day one. They write responses regularly, print and complete two different alignment video guides, share reasons to practice yoga, label yoga pose guides, experience at least three other yoga teachers either live or via audio, video, or skype, and write a final paper exploring two yoga poses in depth. At the end of the final essay each student is asked to offer his or her honest opinion about yoga. Some of those comments are below. College student honest opinons about yoga after practicing twice weekly for eight or sixteen weeks. These keep me motivated and help me to believe that I was meant to teach this.

From Emma B

My honest evaluation of Yoga is that it is priceless, as are its benefits. I enjoy immensely the reward I feel after a class. The stretch and strengthening I feel give my body a sense of rejuvenation I get cannot be found in anything else. It does challenge me, but in a positive and constructive way. I feel very centered and relaxed and entirely less stressed during any time of mental strain. I plan to continue yoga through the rest of college and hopefully after as well. I am excited for the summer to purchase or rent some DVDs and introduce the art of yoga to my boyfriend (e works a labor job and often complains of shoulder, neck, and back pain. When I suggest to him to try yoga, he says he is not able to do yoga. I am excited to show him how wrong he is)! I enjoy seeing the things my body is able to do and enjoy challenging it to do a little more each class. I love surprising myself with how flexible and durable my body is. Lastly, I am able to reflect on my life and myself while realizing what is truly important. Yoga gives me the strength to give myself time to let go of the nonsense and the things in life I can’t help and to thank myself for everything I do.

From Andrew C

When starting yoga I wanted to gain strength in all aspects of life. This included mind and body. This is exactly what is happening since I started. I really am trying my best to listen to the instructor and do what I am told even though sometimes it is very hard for me. I am not the most flexible person in the world and after many years of raining for two sports both football and baseball I have lost a lot of flexibility. I have added some muscle but I would like to be able to move a little better than I do though. Another thing that I need to work on as a yoga student is the fact of stress relief. I am a science major and take a lot of tough classes in the years’ time. I have been looking for a way to relieve stress and keep a level head throughout my time here at OWU. Yoga was something that I thought was just not for guys like me and for more girls than anything. Now I realize that I can do yoga and plan on doing it in the future. Thanks for a great semester.

From Samantha DJ

This being my second module of yoga, I feel that I am up for more of a challenge but I am also finding this module to be more of a challenge even though I am doing the same things. That might be because of external factors though. It’s definitely helping me to relax in my final weeks and days of my senior year so I look forward to going to class to relieve stress. I am also looking at the class as less of a “weight loss” class and obtaining more of a mindset of strengthening and stretching parts of my body and relaxing my mind. As I have said in my previous final essay, I will most definitely pursue yoga classes after I graduate to continue in a relaxed mindset as I move out into “real life.”

From Sarah DJ

Yoga gives me the opportunity to relax and to let my body stretch, strengthen, and be silent. I loved Yoga I and so I decided to take Yoga II. This time I feel that I was less ready for the challenge. I have had a very tough semester academically, personally, and financially. I have been so busy rushing from task to task day to day that I never have a chance to stop. That is how I came into this module and the class is forcing me to take a few minutes and stop. Overall, I think the practice is wonderful and it challenges me and I love it. Thanks for everything!