How Yoga Changed my Life: One Student’s Story Brenda Edmonds The student we are spotlighting this week is Brenda Edmonds. She has been coming to Surya Yoga since 2020. She is a wife, a mother of two college-age daughters, and an upper level math instructor at JCCC. You can catch her at a variety of classes, including our crazy early, but super fun 5:30 a.m. class on Wednesday! Why did you start practicing yoga? It was the pandemic. My back hurt from my job changing from one where I stood a lot to one where I sat in front of a screen all day; I was stressed (or maybe depressed). My friend Crysta posted on Facebook about how much yoga helped her, so I asked her about it and came with her to a class. I’ve been attending Surya Yoga ever since. What do you enjoy about yoga? I always feel better after a yoga class than I did before class. I am getting stronger, have better balance, and my back doesn’t hurt anymore! It also has helped me stay more calm in stressful situations than I was before able to before practicing yoga. What has been an unexpected benefit of practicing yoga? I have a lot of cute new yoga shirts! But I also get less frustrated with difficult situations than I used to get. What is your favorite pose? I like half moon. I like working toward getting better at inversions. (Note from Crysta: I know that Brenda’s been working hard on crow and getting into a headstand.) How has yoga changed your life? I literally feel like it saved my life when I was struggling both physically and emotionally during the pandemic. Now the pandemic has lessened, but I’m still enjoying the benefits of yoga! Here are some of Brenda’s additional thoughts. I so appreciate the welcoming, non-judgmental environment of Surya Yoga. It allowed me to start when I could not do much or keep up very well and also earn and improve without feeling bad about where I was at. There are plenty of classes at various levels, so I can continue to challenge myself as I continue to get stronger and better.
