MIND, BODY, SPIRIT: Yoga classes good for people of all ages, but requires discipline, patience

Sep. 13—National Yoga Month is observed in September, and local instructors and practitioners are getting to the core of this mindful discipline.

Yoga instructor Laura Mullins Young has a passion for her art.

"I have actually practiced yoga for over 15 years," said said. "I've been teaching the past three years."

Young has taught at several different places, including The 108 Yoga Studio in Tahlequah and The Canebrake resort in Wagoner.

"It's kind of become my life," she said.

Young said many people start practicing yoga as a means of stretching. However, once you start doing it, she said, it becomes not so much a physical activity but one for the mind.

"It becomes a beautiful way to be," she said.

Young taught a Lunchtime Yoga class Sept. 13 at The 108 Yoga Studio — a weekly class she said gives her participants "an awesome little break" during their workday.

Katy Nelson attended the lunchtime session on Tuesday.

"It's nice because it's on my lunch hour, my kids are at school, and I don't have any other obligations," said Nelson. "It's kind of my time."

Nelson has been practicing yoga for two months now and said she's already "hooked."

"I like it because it's relaxing and I get a great stretch," said Nelson. "I like that it stretches parts of your body that you don't typically use."

Justine Lowe, another class participant, has been practicing yoga for over 20 years.

"It's good, physically and mentally," said Lowe.

Lowe thinks of yoga as a journey with no clear end goal. And she likes that.

"You'll never achieve the pinnacle," said Lowe. "There is always the next level."

On her own journey, Lowe said she's working on maintenance right now, but thinks it goes through ebbs and flows.

There are two common misconceptions about yoga Young wanted to clear up.

"People think it's this crazy-hard thing your body can't do," she said. "It's not."

Young believes yoga is for everyone, from kids to athletes. Yoga can be modified for people of different skill levels and abilities. There is even a version called "chair yoga" for those with reduced mobility.

Young also said many believe yoga is itself a religion, which isn't the case.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states yoga is an ancient and complex practice — rooted in Indian philosophy — that began as a spiritual practice but has become popular as a way of promoting physical and mental well-being. Yoga in the United States places emphasis on physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation or "asanas," "pranayama," and "dyana."

There are several different styles of yoga. Yoga instructor Analeesa Kobriger typically teaches Vinyasa Flow.

"Yoga is mind, body and spirit," she said.

Kobriger has been practicing yoga for eight or nine years but started her deep dive into the subject about two years ago, around the same time she started teaching.

Kobriger teaches two nights a week at the Northeastern State University Fitness Center and at The 108 Yoga Studio during the day. She shared what she enjoys most about it.

"For me, it's mostly the breathing," she said. "Breathing will take over your flow."

Kobriger said yoga takes discipline and patience. Not only can practitioners gain mindfulness from yoga, she said, but strength, balance, and posture.

"The ultimate goal of yoga is peace, I think," she said. "Now to me, it's like second nature."

Young said the word "yoga" means "union."

"All it is is an awareness of mind and body," she said.