Seminar teaches yoga as stress management

By Luis Salinas/reporter

Jason Floyd/The Collegian  Kenneisha Thompson plays Camae alongside Oris Phillips as Martin Luther King Jr. in the production of The Mountaintop, playing at Jubilee Theatre until March 1.
Jason Floyd/The Collegian Kenneisha Thompson plays Camae alongside Oris Phillips as Martin Luther King Jr. in the production of The Mountaintop, playing at Jubilee Theatre until March 1.

Stress is inevitable, causing serious problems in a person’s life, a South Campus psychology assistant professor said Feb. 4.

Staussa Ervin explained the importance of relaxing and the need for sleep in Unbelievable Relaxation in 30 Minutes!

More sleeping pills are being prescribed by doctors because of the tremendous lack of sleep, Ervin said.

Also, learning to relax and make time for some deep psychological and physiological relaxation is always necessary for the best and most productive feel-good days.

She said she was offering students who attended a special session.

“Bringing mind and body together to create a real transformation among a different level of consciousness, being equivalent to a full eight hours of sleep in only a one-hour session,” she said.

Ervin allowed the stress of the day to fade away and unwind the nervous system in a seminar that went “beyond sleep” in a technique called yoga nidra.

She has been doing yoga nidra for two years and regular yoga for 10 years.

“I felt that the students appreciated it and saw the difference of tension and relaxation, which was really my goal,” she said.

Ervin said she truly loves what she does with each day, practicing what she preaches about staying totally relaxed in a busy schedule.

She liked her first yoga nidra experience.

“I felt an incredible sense of deep relaxation with being fully rested,” she said.

That first experience was the push to go into yoga nidra to help others get the same feeling of being relaxed and feeling what she felt, Ervin said.

With only 14 people in the seminar, students expressed a sense of relaxation and comfort as well as leg and full-body room.

South student Kim Stoner enjoyed the yoga nidra.

“I felt really calm and relaxed,” she said.

Shana Prosperi said she felt more grounded and saw pretty colors in her head for a complete feeling of relaxation.

“I felt fully recharged and relaxed and ready to get on with my day,” she said.

Students said they felt a quick recharge of power to their hectic and stressful lives in just 30 minutes to a look-forward kind of day.

Feeling relaxed, Patricia Oropeza said, “I think I will try yoga.”

The Women In New Roles program and its coordinator Trisha Light sponsored the event.