Moné Skratt Henry’s Interview with Kristina DiLeonardo
Shavana Singh’s Interview with Nicole DiBenedetto
Margaret Che’s Interview with Donna Scimeca
Moné Skratt Henry’s Interview with Kristina DiLeonardo
Transcript of Oral History Interview of Kristina DiLeonardo
Yoga on Staten Island: A Generational Schism
It was the summer of 1995 when an ambitious young woman, Pam Flynn, established the first yoga studio on Staten Island. At the time, the establishment, Shakti Yoga Center, was met with weary regards. No one thought a yoga studio would be able to thrive on the neglected borough of New York City. However, fast-forward to modern day and there is a heavy presence of yoga on Staten Island. This spans from inside the confines of the newer studios, gyms, churches and even schools. In fact, it has become very popular for high schools to offer yoga as an alternative to general physical education. Kristina DiLeonardo is a prime example. It was during her senior year at Wagner High School that she opted to take a yoga course to fulfill her last physical education credit. Instead of playing football or floor hockey, she was independently doing shoulder stands and child’s poses. Kristina DiLeonardo’s acceptance of yoga as a physical activity reveals an important shift in how people define and practice yoga since the days of Pam Flynn’s first teaching on Staten Island in the 1990s. The younger generation pursue yoga as a physical activity with accompanying health benefits, while the older generation describes yoga as a religious activity that transcends physicality and awakens a sense of spirituality.
Commonly, yoga is associated with the Buddhist or Hindu religions, but this is erroneous. According to Pam Flynn, “Yoga’s not Buddhism. Yoga is yoga. It’s its own thing.” Specifically, yoga is another type of meditative practice. While it is found within the Buddhist or Hin
du religions, it’s not cemented within the religions as being an extension of them. Throughout yoga there are varying degrees of physical activities. These can range from sitting cross-legged and chanting mantras to preforming body bending poses to unlock the seven chakras. Chakras are the center of human spirituality and each represents a key component in human existence. For example, the root chakra is the brain, and it embodies survival, manifestation, thinking, etc. Every pose in yoga is meant to unlock these parts of the body to allow for the practitioner to obtain peace and contentment and “expand consciousness”, as Pam Flynn believes. With the varying degrees of physical activity, yoga in the United States today can be felt in a spiritual and or physical way.
The means by which people are introduced to yoga have shifted from being taught by only elite gurus, to allowing yoga to be a universal experience regardless of rank. This transition has impacted the ways people perceive yoga. For an older generation, yoga was a very scared experience and exposure was limited to the confines of ashrams or selective yoga circles. However, due to the new-found popularity of yoga, there is a transformation in what people understand yoga to be. More people are finding yoga to be a physical journey, not an intrinsically religious practice. But the reason for this shift isn’t only due to fewer people in America identifying with a religion. Instead, it is due to the setting where the yogi is taught. For example, a student at a high school is in a secular environment, so religion is going to be removed from the experience. This speaks to a broader theme of the United States separating religion from government entanglements, not necessarily a narrower scope of fewer people claiming a religion. Stories shared by Pam Flynn and Kristina DiLeonardo represent the diverse meanings and expressions of yoga.
Pam Flynn’s experience with yoga has been extensive. Since her mid-twenties, she has devoted her existence to its practices. While she was born into a Lutheran family in Seattle, Washington, she never really connected with the religion. She always had this looming fear that she wasn’t truly worthy due to the concept of “natural sin.” Then during her college years in Hawaii, she went through an atheistic period because of the disarray the world was in during the 1970s. She thought if God really existed, then the world wouldn’t be in the condition it was then. Upon graduating with a degree in Political Science, she became a news anchor in Honolulu and married into a Chinese family. She led a content life, complete with a house on the beach.
However, it was her chance encounter with a yoga guru for one of her interviews that drastically changed her life. In her personal realm she was “searching for meaning in life,” and immediately she was drawn to the enigmatic guru. Following the interview, she vacated her life and went to live in various ashrams for a span of five to eight years, learning “… meditation, chanting, the study of the scriptures, selfless service…” In 1993, she relocated from Manhattan to Staten Island, loving an ocean side view, and founded her own studio, Shakti Yoga Center, in 1995. All in all, Pam Flynn dedicated her life to yoga after an interview that “…changed [her] life forever” in 1978.
Kristina DiLeonardo’s story is quite different. A Brooklyn transplant to Staten Island, she experienced yoga through the public school system. She’s an 18-year-old Freshman at the College of Staten Island, currently majoring in Psychology and minoring in American Sign Language. Growing up, she was raised by single mother and practiced Catholicism and Judaism. This blend has influenced the way she views religion. She claims she’s “…not…a very religious person, but it does play a part in [her] life.” Additionally, during her senior year of high school, she experienced her first taste of yoga with her gym class. At first, she admits that she was hesitant but as the class progressed her perspective changed. As a person who suffers from anxiety and a blood disorder, the routines she learned in yoga were able to make positive changes to her health. Overall, her brief involvement with yoga introduced Kristina to the fitness benefits of yoga.
These two individuals represent very different perspectives on yoga. Pam Flynn represents a seasoned view of yoga. She’s an instructor of yoga and owns her own studio, so she was provided a bounty of knowledge on the subject matter. She spent the majority of her adult life devoting herself to the practice and then bringing it to Staten Island. On the other hand, Kristina DiLeonardo’s outlook on yoga speaks to the youth’s experience with the practice, which is key to understanding how yoga is being depicted to the mainstream and how yoga varies across generations. Additionally, she views herself as a religious person and provides a look into whether yoga is compatible with many religions. What do these different yogis reveal about the practice of yoga on Staten Island?
First, their different stories call attention to a fundamental question: what is yoga? Depending on who you ask and when and how they were exposed to it, the answer will vary. For college Freshman Kristina, yoga is “an experience,” though she wasn’t really sure of how to classify what exactly yoga was. However, there was an overall theme that during her high school class one “discovered different parts of [their] body” and “… how [their] body can move.” Comparatively, Pam Flynn’s concrete definition of yoga was a “series of activities… some kind of behavior, thought process… [that helps you] realize God dwells within you, as you…” The fact that Pam was able to give a solid definition for yoga wasn’t surprising, considering that her life is devoted to its practice, while Kristina only experienced it briefly last year. The connecting thread between the two answers in that there is a physical component of yoga and that the person performing the activity forms a deeper awareness of their existence. They both also asserted that, in yoga, one learns to “…live in the moment.”
Another main difference in yoga between older and younger yoga practitioners is its connection to religion. The notion that yoga is a religion is not something that Kristina was introduced to during her time in high school. As more of the youth becomes introduced to yoga through the framework of a secular public school, there is a shift in how it is taught. During one of her classes the instructor introduced the prayer pose and it was met with a lot of resistance because of the name. The first reaction of many was “But I’m not Catholic.” In response, Kristina recalled that her teacher “immediately said when you go into prayer you’re not praying; this has nothing to do with religion.”
While this secularized yoga is the accepted by a newer generation of yogis, Pam Flynn would dub that as a fallacy because, her view, “[t]he fundamental tenant of yoga is all paths lead to God.” This concept is inherently religious by its assertion that God exists. The thought process of yoga that she described was one that makes the person “… realize that God dwells with in you, as you. And that God dwells within every human being. And you see that in yourself, and you see that in others. And you live in the moment and you realize as Jesus said ‘God spread upon the earth but people do not see it.’ God is here right now and nowhere else…” Overall, Pam believes that “[y]oga is its own religion.”
A reason for this difference in how yoga is viewed in an older generation compared to a younger generation is the means in which each person is taught. Pam believes she can pinpoint why the misconceptions that exist surrounding the practice are there. “I think the problem is that we don’t have realized masters leading people, for the most part,” she said. “You know it’s like you do a recording. Make a recording of that recording, that recording of that recording, the recording of that recording, and it gets pretty watered down and people don’t know what they’re talking about anymore. They’re just painting by the numbers rather than having someone who’s really there teaching.” In other words, the ideals that were once cemented into the practice are now obscured and taken out of context. In her view, the modern teachers of yoga aren’t fully enlightened and, thus, don’t really know that basis for what they are teaching others. An example of this can be shown in Kristina’s experience during high school. When asked about the chakras, Kristina answered, “I don’t know much about them,” and she explained that her teacher didn’t teach any of the reasons for why they were performing the activities they were. Instead, the class “just performed positions.” Although this shows that there is a schism in the way yoga is being taught and overall understanding of it, yoga’s connection with physical wellness and inclusion across all social boundaries nevertheless still remain intact.
Both interviewees mentioned the innate health benefits of yoga. Kristina personally has experienced this in a miraculous way. She said that yoga “definitely helped and also with [her] anxiety, yoga has been a big help with that.” Additionally it helped with her posture. She’s always “had bad posture…. always hunched over, slouched,” she said, and it helped her become “more conscious of it.” Additionally, “yoga taught [her] to clear [her] thoughts and all the pressures that are on [her] and it made [her] improve [her] memory, so…it made [her] healthier.” These overall health benefits are why Pam Flynn believes that yoga has entered mainstream America today. Specifically, it was in the last five years that she noted the clusters of yoga studios developing on the island. Long term, it is the many health benefits that yoga provides that make it so appealing to the average American.
However varying the concepts of yoga are, there still remains this idea of overall acceptance and inclusion within the practice. While Pam Flynn says that “[y]oga is its own religion,” she also believes that it is “one that accomplices, respects all others. Yoga does not say mine in better than yours. Yours is just as good as mine.” An example showing this was during Kristina’s senior year of high school, when her class—composed of people of varying races and religions—was able to practice yoga and experience its benefits without any contention. It seems that Pam Flynn is correct in her appraisal that “The thing about yoga is, it’s not anti-anything. It’s all-inclusive.”
As can be seen, the context in which yoga is taught changes how people view and implemented yoga into their life. This can be seen with the vast difference in how Pam Flynn and Kristina DiLeonardo think of it. While the latter views yoga as a mainly physical activity that brings health benefits, the former has devoted her life to use yoga as a religion and a means of deeper understanding of her life. However, both agreed that yoga teaches people to “live in the moment,” has wonderful health benefits, and is inclusive of all.
About Moné 
Moné Skratt Henry is a rising Sophomore at Macaulay Honors College at the College of Staten Island. While undecided with her major, but leaning towards a career in Speech Pathology, she’s minoring in American Sign Language. Unsolicited facts, she’s a self-proclaimed bibliophile and tea lover.
Shavana Singh‘s Interview with Nicole DiBenedetto
Transcript of Interview with Nicole DiBenedetto
A Spiritual and Physical Lifestyle
Imagine it is your mother’s birthday, and as a surprise, you baked and decorated an enormous, luxurious cake. Hours of dedication and diligence will pay off once she sees it. At the same time, you are instructing your younger sibling to help clean the adjoining room and specifically ask for her to move her books from the floor. Rushing into the next room to place the cake on the table, you trip over the books and the cake goes flying to the ground. For some people, their first reaction is to cry, or scream in anguish at their younger sibling. However, yoga teaches students to take control of the situation with a leveled mind. Through an interview with Staten Island yoga instructor Nicole DiBenedetto from the Yoga Nook, one can understand the significance of yoga in daily life. It becomes evident that DiBenedetto’s experience of yoga is not associated with any religion, but rather is a spiritual and fitness related lifestyle.
Originally, the practice of yoga was a Buddhist tradition and over the years has spread across the globe. Yoga is a type of meditative practice and was first introduced in Buddhist teachings as yogi practice in India in 6th century B.C. (Bushak). Yogi practice was “supernatural,” where yogis would exit their own bodies and enter others to “expand consciousness” (Bushak). Yoga was an important practice to attain spiritual peace and content in traditional Buddhism. The three different branches of Buddhism are Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Theravada means the “Way of the Elders” and is the oldest and most common in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka (The Pluralism Project). Mahayana translates to “the Great Vehicle”, symbolizing the openness in Buddhism, is present in Indian Buddhism, and is less strict according to scriptures (The Pluralism Project). Mahayana Buddhism was the first Buddhist influence in the U.S. in the 19th century through Chinese immigrants and is usually expressed as Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism (The Pluralism Project). Vajrayana, or Tantrayana, translates to the “Diamond Vehicle” to symbolize a more intense version of Mahayana that emerged in the 7th century in Tibet (The Pluralism Project). Vajrayana is different from other strands of Buddhism in that there is a focus on chanting mantras or certain syllables, more rituals are performed, and there are specific “gestures” with the body (The Pluralism Project). Vajrayana is the most recent strand of Buddhism to find its way into America beginning in the 1960s, when Tibetan monks and lamas migrated, creating a large Euro-American influence (The Pluralism Project). As Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism traveled to America, the practice of yoga did as well. The more common, physical aspect of yoga as many are aware of today is called “Hatha yoga”, becoming a popular exercise in the 1930s and 40s in the U.S. (Bushak). The spread of yoga from India to America resulted in new expressions of the practice.
One of these new expressions DiBenedetto emphasizes is the lack of religious connection yoga exercises because of its acceptance of all religions. She says, “All are welcome here. And that’s really the idea of yoga is— it’s open”. DiBenedetto explains that because yoga does not discriminate against religion by allowing those of other faiths to practice, there is an encompassing nature associated with yoga. This is in contrast to many religions, which restricts certain activities affiliated with other religions. Since yoga is separate from religion, every person can practice yoga and simultaneously follow their own belief systems. DiBenedetto then goes on to say, “Yoga I feel is for everybody it’s just a matter of what angle you approach it from,” which builds on her previous notion of yoga accepting towards all religions. DiBenedetto suggests that she is aware of the many expressions of yoga in the world because there are different “angle[s]” to practice it from. She implies that the way to satisfy everyone’s beliefs is yoga without religious background because it proves to be most beneficial to the community. DiBenedetto specifies this angle as most beneficial to her community by explaining her practice of yoga as a spiritual one:
“ I try to…I guess not dumb it down, but kinda Americanize it? Where it’s…more generic. So even like if I try to bring up God, unless I’m actually quoting from…something, I’ll say, ‘believing in the powers that be, whatever that may be, whatever that might mean for you, your God’ or trying to word it so it’s not so…intrusive to somebody that might believe in something a little more different.”
DiBenedetto focuses on the understanding that she has people of all cultures and backgrounds in her classes and respects their beliefs and traditions by making yoga more secular. She removes God as much as possible unless to explain an important lesson across several religions that she believes will better her clients. DiBenedetto’s main focus as she practices yoga is to make her clients comfortable and able to relate and understand the necessity of spiritual and emotional healing. Because of the range of beliefs of yoga practicers, DiBenedetto finds it necessary to understand yoga as a spiritual and physical practice rather than a religiously affiliated one.
It becomes more evident that yoga is a spiritual and physical practice because of the focus provided in studios and centers. DiBenedetto even mentions that her first exposure to yoga was through a Physical Education class. She says, “As a prereq we had to take a health or some kind of Phys Ed class. And I took this stress management and a lot of it was about meditation, about yoga, about just talking to people, getting stuff out”. It is clear that the classification of yoga as a health/Physical Education class identifies it as more related to a fitness and therapeutic practice than a religiously affiliated one. DiBenedetto offers an example of the poor effect religion has on yoga in Staten Island. She says, “We just had a compassion center open up and the guy running the center, he’s a Buddhist monk…and a lot of people will not go there because it’s a Buddhist monk”. DiBenedetto suggests that the idea of religion involved in yoga discourages people from attending that studio to practice. This implies that the involvement of a Buddhist monk in the yoga studio seemed out of place to yoga clients. It is as if the idea of religion incorporated into yoga was uncomfortable or conflicted too much with their own beliefs.
This religious conflict creates a smoother path for focus on the physical attribute of yoga. DiBenedetto explains that one yoga business in particular is marketing the physical fitness of yoga to the younger generations: “they feel that the younger crowd, they’re more interested in fitness, like they’re more intimidated by like ‘I’m gonna sit and meditate like om–like this is stupid. This is just ridiculous, let me leave, I don’t wanna be here.’” This process of entirely stripping yoga down from meditation and religious connections down to only the physical to attract more people demonstrates the prominent aspect of yoga as a physical practice. However, DiBenedetto explains that this method does not quite diminish the spiritual aspect of yoga. She explains their marketing “ is like a gateway into a deeper practice”, so that those interested in the physical part of yoga will hopefully pursue it further into the spiritual practice. DiBenedetto seems to connect with this idea to a similar extent as she explains her use of yoga as a slightly more physical practice at the YMCA. She says that yoga at fitness centers “helps to open people up to yoga, like for me, like I’ll still have people om in the class…And so you’re bringing in these ideas without bringing in some of the traditional like going into deeper mediation and stuff like that because it’s a fitness facility–they’re looking for more what we call the asana practice, which is the physical practice of yoga, but yoga is mind/body”. DiBenedetto explains her balance of yoga as a more physical exercise at fitness centers with some spiritual involvement as the beginning to a deeper connection with yoga. Her idea of balance between the spiritual and asana in fitness centers is to have people say om while practicing basic meditation and poses. This allows a moderate introduction to yoga to spark interest in the spiritual aspect of yoga while focusing on the physical. The focus on yoga as spiritual and physical practice rather than a religious one is apparent through DiBenedetto’s work and the general acceptance of yoga in Staten Island.
Yoga extends beyond the studio as a beneficial and significant lifestyle. DiBenedetto explains that incorporating yoga into everyday life is a major component of attaining the full benefits it offers. She says, “I think at least what I teach, the yoga practice really starts when you step off the mat. You know, it’s the lessons that we learn in the yoga practice that we instill in our every day but it’s up to the individual person to bring it into their everyday”. DiBenedetto builds on the idea that yoga is more than a spiritual and physical practice in the studio. She explains the necessity to bring the lessons into everyday life to feel yoga’s full potential. This creates a type of spiritual transformation within a person’s mind and body, proving that yoga is unaffiliated with religion in the sense of praising a higher being. DiBenedetto gives a specific example of the helpfulness yoga provides in everyday life with someone scratching her car. She says, “You learn how to ‘Okay well if I breathe this out, then you know what, it’s not going to be a big deal, I can deal with that little scratch on my car it’s not going to end or ruin my day.’” This example of taking control of the situation is as DiBenedetto explains, the incorporation of yoga into one’s everyday life. Yoga proves to be a lifestyle because it means approaching possibly harmful situations with a leveled mind. Yoga in daily life is also a spiritual healing because it helps one to think differently and continuously improve one’s being. Yoga is not a religion in terms of praising a higher being, but is a spiritual lifestyle because of the need to control emotions in a way that is beneficial to oneself.
Through an interview with Nicole DiBenedetto, it becomes clear that yoga has the capability of a prominent spiritual and physical lifestyle. The importance of the physical aspect is to interest yoga students in the deeper and meditative perspective. This would then lead to a lifestyle of yoga, where one approaches dire situations in a calm manner. It seems as though most of the fundamental concepts of yoga as stated in Vajrayana Buddhism have remained, although the expression of yoga as DiBenedetto experiences it is arguably its own separate entity. The understanding of yoga as a spiritual and physical lifestyle suggests yoga may be its own religion. Yoga in this manner therefore expands the definition of “religion” as some may understand it. With the growing influence of yoga on Staten Island, it is important to understand the effect it has on society and individuals’ mental, emotional, and physical well-beings. Through stories like DiBenedetto’s, one can piece together the usefulness of yoga in everyday lives for those on Staten Island.
Works Cited
“Buddhism”. The Pluralism Project. Harvard University, 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Bushak, Lecia. “A Brief History of Yoga: From Ancient Hindu Scriptures to the Modern, Westernized Practice.” Medical Daily. IBT Media Inc., 21 Oct. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2016
DiBenedetto, Nicole. Personal Interview. 20 Apr. 16.
About Shavana
Shavana Singh attends the College of Staten Island and is currently a rising sophomore in the Macaulay Honors Program. She is considering a major in English, but is too indecisive to wholeheartedly commit at the moment.
Margaret Che‘s Interview with Donna Scimeca
Interview with Donna Scimeca Audio
Interview with Donna Scimeca Transcription
Yoga: Strengthening of Physical and Mental Fortitude
“The mind thinks the body can only move so far, and so part of what yoga tries to do is enable to use your breath as an empowering tool to move past and take your yoga practice deeper and be able to expand fully, to be able to become more flexible. It is an interesting word, flexibility, right? Because what do we really mean by that? We could take it in the physical sense flexibility, right? Where we actually extend your body, you’re asking your muscles to do something else and it’s also asking you to be flexible in giving your body permission to be able to move beyond what your mind thinks is your capacity (Scimeca).”
In the modern American society, yoga is commonly associated with a series of stretching and breathing. It originates from the Buddhist and Hindu practice of meditation. Although yoga is originally a spiritual practice, many practice yoga for its health benefits. In America, yoga is a physical activity but some practice yoga with its original spiritual purpose. Donna Scimeca is a professor and yoga instructor of the College of Staten Island. Her yoga practices engage her students in physical activity and finding peace in the mind and body. For each pose, she encourages her students to relax and breathe. Especially for a college environment, many of her students take her course for stress relief and relaxation. Unlike other physical activities, yoga involves the focus of the mind and body. Even though common religious practices such as chanting and praying are not involved in Prof. Scimeca’s yoga practices, religion is present in her focus on calming the mind.
Donna Scimeca is a professor at the college of Staten Island teaching U.S. history and yoga. Her yoga practices began sixteen years ago when she was dealing with stress in graduate school. During her studies in yoga, she was a disciple under a Buddhist monk for meditation. In the three months studying under the monk, she practiced meditation to find balance in her life. According to the monk, yoga involves conditioning the body to stay in one comfortable position for an extended time. The difficulty in meditation is the conditioning of the mind with the body. People are often burdened with many responsibilities at once. To adjust the mind to not think about these responsibilities can be difficult. Prof. Scimeca focuses on meditation in her classes, allowing her students to store away their burdens and to find peace. This allows the mind to think more clearly and to be able to solve personal problems. Prof. Scimeca explains the purpose of the poses and their meaning beyond physical stretching. A yoga pose not only extends the muscle, but also the mind. A yoga pose involves the moving of the muscles along with the focus of the mind and breath. As the body extends, the mind imagines the body stretching further with each long breath. According to Prof. Scimeca, yoga is practicing the flexibility in the muscles, and going beyond what the mind thinks the body is capable. This often makes people feel empowered and accomplished. Many of her students enter her class feeling stressed, discouraged, or other emotional strains. As Prof. Scimeca first practiced yoga to relieve stress, she chooses to focus her yoga teachings for stress relief. Donna Scimeca’s yoga practices are mostly for physical and mental health. Many of her students enter the class with many worries and burdens. On some occasions, students would tell Professor Scimeca their problems and request poses that would aid them in relieving their worries in some way. Although personal tips are given to students, Prof. Scimeca teaches her class as a whole. In the beginning of her classes, she focuses on letting her students store away their burdens for at least the extent of the class period. With imagery, the students are to imagine packing away their worries and troubles into a closet. This lets students have a better control of the yoga practice. Prof. Scimeca gives an example of some students saying “I came in here, with this issue on my mind and I didn’t know how I would fix or deal with it, and now I have a clear, a clear path with resolution, and I could see how I could fix this. I could make this happen”. Through yoga, Prof. Scimeca lets her students put away their troubles, calm their mind, and simply move the body. After a yoga session, often the mind is able to think more clearly due to the mind slowing down and allowing time to think about an issue instead of constant worrying. Allowing the mind to move the body beyond the expected limit also gives optimism and confidence. According to the professor, giving confidence and allowing the mind some time to process is one of the gifts of yoga. As a way to adjust her class, Prof. Scimeca would ask “what’s bringing you to yoga?” Often students would respond with stress or stiff muscles. Depending on the class, she would adjust the poses to aid these issues. Along with the emotional benefits she incorporates in yoga, she also works on the physical aspect. Inversion poses are always in her curriculum, which are poses that place the legs above the heart. This allows the blood to circulate backwards, strengthening the heart. Other poses tone and extend the muscles. Her classes end with the corpse pose, which is relaxing the entire body and putting the mind to rest. Students often leave her class feeling optimistic and renewed.
Yoga is also a connection to nature. When practicing the corpse pose, Prof. Scimeca asks her students to imagine nature and open their senses. When they close their eyes, they imagine a setting they are comfortable with, such as a forest in the spring. She then opens the student’s senses by asking them what they smell, touch, see, hear, and taste. Imagining nature gives humans a natural sense of peace and tranquility. People are often disconnected with nature and Prof. Scimeca tries to bring back this connection to her students through yoga. This connection helps students find peace and gives them a place to relax during times of stress. Letting students choose their locations also gives a place of belonging and confidence. Breathing exercises such as square breathing allows her students to connect their pace of breathing to their mind. Another way to deal with stress is hart opening poses. Prof. Scimeca discusses heart opening poses with an instance in her life. Before she began teaching, Prof. Scimeca attended a heart opening workshop, practicing poses that were beneficial for the heart. As she explains, these poses allow the chest to expand and take in more oxygen, strengthening overall health. In this workshop, she witnessed another member of the workshop beginning to weep during these poses. These poses expand the chest and also expose the heart. People are often kept to themselves and protective. When the heart is suddenly exposed, many people can easily become emotional. Prof. Scimeca was not aware of the emotional effects of these poses until the end of the session when the instructor explained the possible emotional effects. Heart opening poses are described to be healing and for some these poses can have a large effect. Yoga is a process that can help not only physically, but also emotionally. It strengthens the emotions and aids in various kinds of stress. During this time Prof. Scimeca was studying yoga on a physical level, however she realized the possible emotional effects yoga can have on people. Yoga is not only a form of physical exercise; it is also a form of stress relief and offers emotional and spiritual guidance to people.
Donna Scimeca approached yoga as a form of stress relief but also for physical activity. As she continued to study yoga, she realized the difficulty of conditioning the mind and balancing her life. As she continues to learn yoga, she also began teaching it to students at the College of Staten Island. Similarly to her younger self, some of her students approached yoga for stress relief and for physical and emotional balance. Although yoga is taught in a group, each practice is different for each individual. Each person has a different level of mental conditioning as well as balance in the mind and body. Yoga guides people in organizing thoughts and emotions. Compared to other physical exercising that also involves mental fortitude and proper positioning, yoga possesses a spiritual sense. This spiritual sense can be seen in the emotional effects on a person. Extreme pain from exercise can lead to emotional effects; however the emotional effects from yoga are healing. The heart opening poses discussed by Prof. Scimeca exposes the heart muscles, creating a psychological effect on the person. These types of poses make yoga different from other exercises. Strengthening mental fortitude can be found in other exercises, but calming the mind through meditation is signature to yoga. No other exercise balances emotional and physical health. The emotional guidance to inner peace is similar to religion. Almost all religions are a path way to peace. This is similar to yoga in a sense that it guides people to peace and balance. For some yoga can also give hope through confidence and the strengthening of the body and mind. Professor Scimeca does not view yoga as a religion; however she does value yoga as a spiritual guidance to nature. Yoga to Donna Scimeca is a pathway to inner balance and physical fitness. This can be seen in her classes through her curriculum and her personal guidance with individual students. At least on the College of Staten Island, yoga is viewed as a form of physical exercise and stress relief.
Yoga to Donne Scimeca is a form of physical and emotional wellness. She first approached yoga as a form of stress relief and is now teaching it to students who also are looking for a form of stress relief. Yoga is much more than exercise, in this case it transcends into the emotions. In Prof. Scimeca’s life, yoga’s gift is the ability to open the mind and give time to processes. Much more than just toning the body, yoga can heal emotional scars and aid the body in many spiritual levels.
Works Cited
Scimeca, Donna. Personal Interview. 20 April 2016.
About Margaret
Margaret Che previously attended the College of Staten Island and now a freshman attending the School of Visual Arts to pursue her artistic career. In her personal time she loves drawing, painting and flower pressing.
