In Room 480 of the Tate Student Center, soft music plays and pink salt lamps provide a warm glow behind Zoe Rosenberg, president of the Bhakti Yoga Club and senior psychology major. Take a deep breath, then release, as a University of Georgia student leads yoga and meditation.
Classes are held every Wednesday and last 1-2 hours. During the winter months, conferences are held at the Tate. Later this year, the conference will move to North Campus, allowing for more space and a natural atmosphere for participants.
“That’s what I really got into when I started going to clubs.” [being] Outside,” Rosenberg said. “There’s a big tree, and it’s very nice.”
Sessions typically include self-introductions, journaling, yoga, and a sweet treat at the end for students. Members of the executive team will take turns teaching classes each week.
“Each week, we take about 10 minutes to choose a different question, and we ask everyone to think about it and write about it in their journals. Then we go into breathing exercises, and someone leads the class for about 45 minutes to an hour. ” said Mr. Faye Decker, junior landscape architecture major and member of the Bhakti Yoga executive team.
Rosenberg estimates the club started a year or two before COVID-19, but has grown significantly since then. It is now properly registered as a student organization and can use spaces like Tate for free.
If you are interested in yoga, please bring your friends and join us, regardless of your experience. Jules Lewis, a freshman from Ponte Vedra, Fla., recently attended his first meeting.
“I’m really excited,” Lewis said. “When I got home, I was doing yoga on the beach. I had a small yoga gathering at sunrise and it was a very relaxing atmosphere, so I thought it would be fun to try some relaxing yoga here.” I did.”
Students perform various poses following a yoga routine during a past meeting of the Bhakti Yoga Club on the University of Georgia’s North Campus Quad in Athens, Georgia. Members are encouraged to bring a yoga mat or towel to use during the meeting. (Photo courtesy/Zoe Rosenberg)
Kaylin Ingram, a freshman psychology major, joined the club last semester. Ingham had enrolled in Pilates classes through UGA, but she was looking for “something a little more calm,” she said.
For others, clubs are a great option for activities that might otherwise be expensive. Yoga classes in Athens cost him as much as $30 each.
“I started [coming to Bhakti] Last year, I was really into yoga to begin with and I was like, ‘Yoga is so expensive that UGA has to offer some kind of free yoga,”’ Decker said.
Although members all have their own reasons for joining the club, the overall theme is to develop a sense of grounding and mindfulness in the middle of the school week.
“The importance of yoga is [it is] It’s a really good stress reliever,” Rosenberg said. “It really gives you space to take your mind off everything that’s going on and just be in the moment.”
If you would like to join, follow the club on Instagram @ugabhaktiyoga.
