10 Jul Why We Love Yoga
The practice of yoga has been around for a long time yet has recently experienced massive growth in popularity. According to TheGoodbody.com, 36 million Americans practice yoga and the number actually doubled between the years 2012 and 2016 (2020). At The Institute of Beauty and Wellness, and sister school Aveda Institute Madison, we have been offering our students complimentary yoga classes for years and feel it is an important aspect of wellness and self-care. Learn why we love this practice and how it benefits our students during their education.
First let’s begin by understanding what is yoga. Yoga is an ancient Indian practice of physical exercise, breath control and meditation. Originating in India, it is said that people started practicing in the U.S. about a hundred years ago. The word yoga actually means “union” in Sanskrit which further describes this mind/body practice (Borohhov). Additionally, yoga is said to help with flexibility, alleviating back pain and providing stress relief.
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In today’s fast-paced society with hectic schedules, traffic jams, and an overabundance of screen time, yoga is a great practice to help us focus and gain clarity. More importantly, yoga helps us to just plain slow down. Most of us struggle with silence as we are so used to always being busy or constantly looking at our cell phones. Yoga is a great break for us both mentally and physically. At The Institute of Beauty and Wellness, we recognize that our students may be going through a lot and allowing them to practice yoga while in school helps them find balance. Our school director Kari Kennedy explains, “At The Institute of Beauty and Wellness we prioritize wellness for our guests but it is equally as important to prioritize it for our students. They need to take care of themselves so they can better serve their guests.” After all, the founder of Aveda himself, Horst Rechelbacher, was motivated to create products to benefit health and wellness and included aspects of wellness in his daily routine. We are simply following in his footsteps. As a result, we offer complimentary yoga classes on a regular basis to ensure our students well-being.
Our current yoga instructor, Cassie Newlin, LMT, CYT-200 @cassehmonster, is actually a past graduate of the Massage Therapy program at our Milwaukee campus and has been practicing yoga for five years. She says practicing yoga while she was in school helped her feel more connected to the material she was learning and provided her with a whole new dimension of understanding the human body. She recalls practicing different yoga poses in relation to the anatomy material she was learning in class. In addition, she feels it benefits our current students in several ways and adds, “Concepts of alignment cross over all industries. We begin to build habits while in school that follow us throughout our careers.” Understanding our bodies, proper posture and also being able to sit in silence will help us in any domain.
We couldn’t agree with her more. If you are interested in becoming a student or want to learn more about our beauty or wellness programs, we would love to meet you! Schedule a virtual tour with our admissions team to learn more.
