This Week at SBPL I Discovered … Yoga!

As I got out of bed the other day my right shoulder hurt. When I twisted to stretch out that sore spot, my lower back hurt. I stood up in my doorway and reached for the top of the door frame and grabbed hold. I dropped down and let my weight pull out the kinks in my old body until it felt right again. What little I have gleaned in my sporadic visits to the gym told me that this body needed a more long-term solution.

There is enough health information floating around the internet and water cooler to tell me that this body might best be mended with yoga. It is physical but gentle enough if practiced for old people like me to do it (hey, if its good enough for Raquel Welch…!) But, where to start? The Library of course!

After searching in the Library’s online catalog I found enough print and AV materials on yoga to fill the trunk of my car. Looking in the nonfiction area, around the Dewy number 613.7 I found yoga books upon yoga books. There are a variety of types of yoga styles (astanga, hatha, and bikram to name a few), some more rigorous than others. There are yoga books aimed at heavyset adults, beginners, soul searchers, persons with special needs, men, women, children, the elderly, “idiots,” and a few for those who want to look like a model and think like a guru.

That gave me a lot to consider.

I needed to learn more about yoga in general first before I could decide which specific path would be best for me, so I started with The Everything Yoga Book and figured I would get to the DVDs after I learned more about which yoga I wanted.

The books and movies were fine and all accounted for, but one-on-one with an instructor would probably be even better, so I investigated what yoga classes are offered at the Library. There are several! The Library partners with professional instructors for various offerings at a small fee to help benefit the Friends of the Library. Fundraising dollars help the Friends to support many of our classes and programs for the public, such as the current Summer Reading events.

From fall through spring, the Library offers basic beginner and intermediate yoga classes in recurring six-week courses that cost $60 per session. During the 2012 summer, there is a Back Care Yoga course, in addition to Qigong (pronounced chee-gung), both are now open for registration. Qigong is not actually yoga, but incorporates yoga-like movement with breathing and relaxation exercises to help with physical and mental well-being. That couldn’t hurt!

So, this summer I will be focused on self-improvement through yoga with the help of classes, books, and movies at my local Library. Namaste!

What are you discovering this summer at the South Brunswick Public Library?!


by Rosemary Gohd, PR/Marketing