Yoga at home in California at the beach!
As you can imagine, Harvard students feel a bit stressed with the school load and extracurricular, not to mention any jobs on the side. But lucky there are great recourses for the overworked mind. Two of my favorites are the prevalence of meditation and yoga on campus.
The law school (Hemenway) and undergraduate (MAC, or Malkin Athletic Center) gyms both have a variety of group exercise classes for free for undergraduates all through-out the week. A number of these are yoga classes ranging from the common Vinyasa Flow style, to the more healing and relaxing Hatha style, each with classes from beginning to more advanced.
It’s amazing to me what an hour of your day dedicated to staying in the present moment with yoga can do for your concentration, energy, and positive emotions. I recently took one of special Sunday yoga courses, which change each Sunday to a more adventuresome focus. The one I did was on headstands and shoulderstands—after being in cheerleading and gymnastics for most of my pre-college life, this turned out to be a ton of fun!
Yoga headstands
Invigorated by the powerful healing aspect of yoga, I recently helped get my parents into it—after much persuasion, they are now both taking private lessons in it, liking it so much. Now that I’ll be graduating soon, I realize how lucky I am to have free yoga classes as many places typically charge $12 or more of class.
In an effort to extend the benefits of yoga to everyone in the community—for it should be something everyone has access too, not just though you can afford it—, I recently applied and got an interview for the Karma Yoga Studio Community Program, a Harvard-based student program that works with the local Harvard Karma Yoga Studio to provide extremely discounted yoga training to students (such as myself) who then will provide a certain number of community service hours of yoga teaching to underserved populations such as the homeless or high school students. I’ll keep you updated on how that process goes.
And, of course, mindfulness techniques at Harvard can be cultivated in the form of meditation. As part of my “senior bucket-list” (a list I started to try and complete all the things I’ve always wanted to do at Harvard before leaving), I finally went to the Harvard Meditation Club. I’ve done meditating at home and at the Harvard Women’s Center, but stop going to the Women’s Center one.
The Harvard Meditation Club has two weekly events, a teacher-led session on Tuesdays, and a student-led session and philosophical discussion on Saturdays. I went the Tuesday session and loved the energy that came with group meditation and discussion. I know I’ll get going back.
I’m about to take off for yoga class (Yin Yoga at Karma Yoga Studio), but thought I’d just provide my senior bucket list thus far:
Senior Bucket List
To Do
* Use the Leverett House Darkroom to develop photographs
* Eat at the local Greater Boston Buddhist Center
* Go to every (or the most possible) house’s Master’s Open House [we went to Kirkland’s yesterday for dessert and coffee]
* Apply for a DAPA (Drug & Alcohol Peer Advisors) Grant for a food-centric party with friends
* Go to the Harvard Observatory in the Science Center
* Check out Adam’s basement tunnels
* Go to a play, opera, or otherwise (two in mind so far!)
Art from the Adam’s House Tunnels
Completed
* Rock Climbing in Lowell House
* Harvard Museum of Natural History
* Fall asleep in a library [Cabot Library]
* Get lost in Widener
* Get a free water
* Go to Harvard’s 3am eateries (e.g., The Kong, Felipe’s, Nocs, & Falafel Corner)
* Get a free DAPA water bottle
* Classes at the Innovation Lab
* Leverett Sherry Tasting with the Master
* Write for The Crimson
