Sunday 7 August 2016

Yoga on Wednesday Evenings at Girard Library

By Jennifer Ball

yoga

Cathy Rubemeyer leads the yoga class at the library on Wednesday evenings. She practices tree pose in this photo.

Every Wednesday night, at the back room of the Girard Library, Cathy Rubemeyer teaches a yoga class. The class starts at 6:00 p.m. and usually has five or six people in attendance. They go from easier to more difficult poses, always ending the last five minutes in “corpse pose,” where students lay on their backs with their arms at their sides.

Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice, originating in ancient India, with various schools and practices. “Yoga is all about freedom,” reads one book on the topic. It opens you up to new ideas and clears your mind of the clutter.

The reason Rubemeyer started teaching in the Girard Library was that she originally taught in Virden, but the space was no longer available Wednesday nights. One of her students, Bethany, told her about the space in the Girard Library that wasn’t being used. It made sense because many of her clients lived in the Girard/Virden area.

Rubemeyer teaches several different kinds of yoga, but she that her favorite is Vinyasa flow. In this kind of yoga, students synchronize their movement with the breath to flow from one pose to the next.

There are many health benefits to doing yoga, Rubemeyer said. “It helps with breathing, blood pressure, digestion, spinal alignment, flexibility, strength. There’s not much that it’s not good for,” she said. “There’s so many health benefits, but especially in the breathing, flexibility, and strength areas.”

However, like in any form of exercise, one must listen to their body to know if they should continue doing the exercise. If you have a muscle that’s strained, “listen to your body” to make sure to not further injure it. There are many variations of poses that can make the pose easier or harder. People can use blocks or blankets to make poses easier or more comfortable.

It’s important to also remember that all ages can do yoga, from the very young to the very old, Rubemeyer said. It is also good for people with multiple sclerosis, a disease where the insulation of nerve cells in the brain and spine are damaged, interrupting the nervous system’s communication.

Rubemeyer said that what she hopes to accomplish is “sharing yoga in itself and helping people become stronger.” One of her clients had back surgery, like Rubemeyer herself, and she grew a half inch from practicing yoga. “I really like helping people and watching them improve,” she said.

The Carlinville resident said that she also likes the meditation aspect of yoga. “When you’re really stressed out, it’s calming and restorative,” she said.

Each yoga class is $10 per class, and it costs $30 for one month of classes.

Source: Yoga on Wednesday Evenings at Girard Library Yoga on Wednesday Evenings at Girard Library

Yoga on Wednesday Evenings at Girard Library can be read here http://www.cogashub.com

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