New yoga club aims to relieve students' stress - RU Daily Targum

Not Just Yoga, a campus organization catering to students interested in yoga and meditation, seeks to provide students a refuge from the chaos of campus life.

Bhaskar Mitra, a School of Engineering postdoctoral associate, founded the club early last year.

"[Not Just Yoga is] an organization dedicated to relieving stress via healthy methods," said club President Justine D'Souza.

At a standard club meeting, members engage in meditation, practice breathing techniques and hold discussions.

"It's also a good outlet for people interested in peace and spirituality," D'Souza said.

But as the name suggests, Not Just Yoga goes beyond the realm of yoga mats and breathing exercises. Members also volunteer and give back to the community.

"[Not Just Yoga] offers members the opportunities to participate in community service initiatives throughout the semester," club administrator Najuk Mehta said. "Whether it's tutoring elementary school children after hours or spreading smiles across the campus with the ‘RU Smiling' campaign."

Club leaders also host "De-Stress" events for students in the University's residence halls with other campus organizations.

"Any student would benefit from this organization," D'Souza said. "Everyone endures tension and experiences difficulty in managing it single-handedly."

D'Souza spoke from experience.

"There was one meeting where I was really tense, because I had so many things to do after the meeting," she said. "After participating in the meeting's meditation, however, I felt great. I thought to myself, ‘If I can bring this to others, I can't wait to do so.'"

Mehta elaborated on the club's benefits. Unlike everyday activities, programs at Not Just Yoga put members in tune with themselves and bring them to a new level of understanding, she said.

"It's amazing what we don't notice about ourselves day in and day out," Mehta said. "We get stuck in the same patterns, and we often miss simple truths. But with a little awareness and wisdom, we can look deeper into these patterns of the mind and can be much more free and relaxed, enjoying the present far more."

School of Arts and Sciences sophomore Emily Chou expressed interest in joining Not Just Yoga.

"I currently take yoga classes at the College Avenue Gym," Chou said. "It's really relaxing and calming because it makes you forget your stress. A club about yoga would be beneficial to all the students, especially during exam time. I'd definitely like to attend."

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Grateful Yoga helps some Northwestern students relieve stress - Daily Northwestern

When Prachi Murarka came to Northwestern, she wanted to become a senator. Now the SESP senior is training to become a yoga teacher in hopes of helping people become more conscious and caring.

Nick and Lela Beem, the owners of Grateful Yoga, 1108 Davis St., helped bring about that shift, Murarka said.

"I was inspired by how two people can live a life of yoga, make that their entire life, and really help people in the process," Murarka said. "Seeing the fact that they can make it and feeling their encouragement throughout the entire process was definitely one of the major factors that got me here and even to consider this as an option."

The Beems, a husband-and-wife team, opened Grateful Yoga in June after teaching at the Heartwood Center, 1818 Dempster Ave., for five years. Grateful Yoga's teaching philosophy includes the idea that yoga is more than a workout, they said.

For them, yoga's tradition of meditation, philosophy and postures can bring people to a more balanced life, as it did for them in college.

While writing her senior thesis, Lela Beem said she smoked and drank to ease the stress. Yoga gave her the resolve she needed to change her habits, she said.

"I remember a moment in yoga," Beem said, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. "I really like to breathe deep, the feeling of breathing. My body so much more wants to breathe than it wants cigarettes, so it was just over for me."

Yoga not only changed Lela Beem's habits but also brought her closer to her future husband, she said.

"That was, from the start, one of the things that attracted us to each other, and our relationship grew as we both grew as yoga practitioners," Nick Beem said. "It's all woven together pretty intimately."

He said ideas from yoga and meditation made them understand how they are responsible for their own actions and cannot blame their partners, which helped their relationship.

Classes at Grateful Yoga focus on these ideas, allowing students to learn the history and philosophy of yoga in addition to the postures, said Richard Joseph, an NU professor who takes classes at Grateful Yoga.

"There's a lot of yoga that's done as a form of exercise," Joseph said. "Their teaching is as far removed from that as it can possibly be."

The studio consists of one large room with a hardwood floor, spotless white walls and green curtains. The space facilitates the practice of yoga and meditation, Communication senior Kelsey Melvin said.

"The decor itself puts you in the right state of mind," said Melvin, who also takes classes at the studio. "As soon as you step into that place, you know that it's a safe place, a place where you can practice yoga on your own terms. It's a stress relief."

For Murarka, the classes not only reduced stress but also helped her look more deeply into her everyday life and her future.

"A lot of times Northwestern students get bogged down by what we have to achieve and don't really take the time to nurture and deal with who we are," Murarka said. "We'll work on the deeper level and can really make more of an impact in whatever we're doing, whether in business, medicine, engineering, journalism … all the things Northwestern has to offer."

yenyu2013@u.northwestern.edu

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