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news:
faculty snapshot
Yoga tunes mind
with body
By Kristina Klein
Special to the On-line Forty-Niner
Mikki Michele has
been teaching yoga at Cal State Long Beach for the past 27
years and although she teaches yoga in five other locations,
she considers this campus her real home.
"I've been
experienced with other teachers but nothing like her,"
said political science major Natalee Faulkner, one of Michele's
students. "The fact that she's very thorough with instruction,
she brings a different feel of practice."
Michele started
out taking yoga as a student at CSULB. After two years of
classes, her instructor was leaving and encouraged her to
apply for the job. With her desire to become a teacher
she found her calling as a yoga instructor. From that
point on, she has been teaching students the classical style
of yoga called Hatha, which focuses on the strict discipline
practice that originated in India as a way of connecting the
physical body with the spiritual aura.
Michele has watched
the practice of yoga gain popularity and attention over the
past 30 years. At first, classes where hard to find
in the Los Angeles area because many instructors taught in
the San Francisco area, she said.
However, the media's
inquiry about entertainers and musicians getting involved
with this practice is peaking students' interest in trying
yoga, and Michele has each class filled to capacity with 50
students, she said.
The focus in her
students is developed through each exercise and position they
learn every week. Many of her students practice the
art of yoga in outside classes.
"She really
motivated me to start taking yoga classes outside CSULB,"
said senior Annette Bartley, a physiology major. "In
fact, I now practice yoga three times a week." Bartley
said she wishes the campus would offer more classes because
yoga offers so many benefits for the students.
Michele said there
are tremendous benefits of practicing this exercise for all
athletes and non-athletes. The biggest physical changes she
observes in her students at the end of the semester are flexibility
and muscle strength.
"Yoga has
improved my muscle tone and flexibility, helping me relax
the tense areas of my body," said junior Kathleen Woodruff.
"I think the
reason why so many students come to my yoga class is to clear
their heads." Michele said.
However, Michele
said many first-time students believe the class is going to
be a place where they can just sit and relax, but this is
not the case as yoga is a physically demanding practice that
requires students' full concentration in both mind and spirit,
she said.
"She's tough,
but fair," said junior computer engineering Ismael Perez.
"She knows what she's doing. I would take her again."
Michele said her
biggest challenge is to hook the students into the practice
before they get discouraged by not seeing instant physical
changes in their body. It takes months and years to fully
grasp the techniques of yoga and it is very hard to train
the mind to become completely in tune with the rest of the
body.
Repeat students
of her class refine their techniques and find a true love
for their bodies, Michele said. It takes the student's self
discipline to go through the initial discomfort of practicing
new positions to start the initial change in their bodies.
These students start to realize that yoga is not a competitive
practice but rather a practice that requires them to close
off distractions of the outside world and focus on their inner
selves.
Michele said she
enjoys seeing new and old faces every semester and hopes to
hook every CSULB student into the art of yoga, as she did
one.
"It has been
truly inspirational to me," Faulkner said. "She's
inspired me to do a study in yoga. There definitely has to
be a drive in yourself to be a good teacher."
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