College students have a lot to deal with at school, whether its classes, studying, financial loans, or clubs. To add on more stress, students have relationship problems, financial crises, and other personal dilemmas. Eva Washburn-Repollo, an intercultural communications professor at CUH, practices lyengar yoga and feels that it is a great way to discover new cultures and relieve stress.
Lyengar yoga utilizes objects such as blocks, chairs, blankets and belts to reach desirable poses. It cultures the whole person by bringing the body, mind and emotions into a state of balance and harmony.
“I believe that yoga allows us to see how other people deal with the mysteries of life as we get acquainted with the life giving breath itself,” Wahsburn-Repollo said. “I also appreciate the physical discipline of flexibility that allows us to find more in ways that we can learn to adjust to our surroundings.”
Wahsburn-Repollo brought her intercultural communications class to lyengar yoga, in the beginning of October, because in situations of intercultural communication there is discomfort when we go to places that are unfamiliar. Our bodies feel it first and it can tense up and feel uncomfortable. The connection and familiarity to the breath, which allows our muscles to persist and tolerate this discomforts is key to yoga.
“We also know that a healthy body brings healthy minds,” Washburn-Repollo said. “Here we hope that these strengths will allow us to be more open minded, to flex our habits against those who are different from us, to find an understanding and gratitude that we can tolerate difference and newness.”
Students like Siufaga Kava and Michael James Hogan Jr. made the connection with different cultures in their daily life that they encounter with and also practice yoga for their personal health.
“As a ‘professional amateur’ football and rugby player (at CUH), I need my body to be in optimum shape,” said Kava, a junior at CUH. “A good way to stay in good physical shape starts from the beginning with a good stretch.”
Before Kava started using yoga in his stretches, he said he would start off the game slow and cramped up easily. With the power of yoga, Kava found a new way to warm up and stretch. Through yoga, he was able to perform better with several animal poses like downward dog, which is very popular, along with other poses that stretch his quads, hamstring and calves.
“My greatest assets to my game is my legs,” Kava said. “They are to me, what a V-8 3.6 vortex turbocharged engine is to a Chevy Silverado.”
Hogan is also part of CUH’s football club and stereotyped yoga of doing weird animal poses. This relates to intercultural communication because he was put into a situation where he was uncomfortable but understood the practice of yoga in the end.
“It helped me a lot with my lower back pain,” Hogan said. “I used the corpse pose to relax my mind before I start studying so that my mind is fresh and ready to take in a lot of information. And the results showed on the test.”
Lyengar Yoga Honolulu is located in the Manoa Marketplace at 2752 Woodlawn Drive Suite 5-203 on the second floor above Bank of Hawaii and Paesano Restaurant.
