on Community Yoga.

This week, a friend and fellow yogi, Leslie Ann Ellingburg, wrote an article about the community yoga that I have been working with in Knoxville. Her site is aptly named Aum in the Arts, as she works to bring yoga, artists and community together in our small area of Tennessee. You can find the article on her blog.

On Wednesdays, at Norwood Elementary School, three teachers and I alternate teaching free yoga to the community. As instructors, we are different in personality and style of teaching, and I think the blend is a great way to introduce yoga to the area. The concept started by the Norwood Community Schools Director, Jordan Frye. She and I met early this year and talked about the idea of having a place in Knoxville where people could attend yoga classes who could not afford them. Our collective idea was to create a space and home similar to the vision of the Asheville Yoga Center, where teachers from all over Asheville come together to teach and learn. Jordan says, “an important piece of achieving a healthy community is creating spaces within the community that promote wellness.”

After this initial conversation, we started the weekly classes. Things have been going well, but our numbers are very small. This week, we were written in two local venues, the Aum in the Arts and the local Shopper magazine.

The local Shopper magazine article can be found here. The article features yoga instructor, Jessica Dalton-Carringer, who teaches locally at The Birdhouse and has been pursuing her PhD in Anthropology. She believes that yoga “…offers many health benefits, including stress relief and building lean muscle.” Another instructor, Nikki Lambent-Nitzband, is “dedicated to bringing yoga off the mat and into daily life.” Veronica Carmazzi, a certified Athletic Trainer who works with clients all over the Knoxville area. She provides wisdom and careful alignment to each student as she leads classes. Veronica also teaches yoga at Glowing Body and Alliance Brewery. Tracy Riggs (the writer of this blog) of Zephyra Yoga has felt the stress relief and calm that yoga offers daily. She started practicing yoga daily after a very difficult time in her life. The difference in her life was extraordinary. Tracy teaches at Glowing Body on Thursday evenings, and at Alliance Brewery.

If you are in the Knoxville area on Wednesdays, join us at Norwood Elementary School from 6-7 pm, as we assist in bringing peace, calm, stress reduction and strength to the community.