Phosphorescent lights, glow-in-the-dark body paint, and yoga — aptly termed “glowga” — the UFV yoga club hosted its second annual winter semester kickoff event in the Student Union Great Hall last Thursday. It was a high-energy and inclusive affair for anyone of any yoga competence.
Yoga might typically be considered a calming and peaceful practice. But the UFV yoga club wanted to offer something exciting for both yoga enthusiasts and the non-yoga’d alike.
“There were a couple of people doing handstands before we started so they were pretty hardcore,” said Mia Harries, president of the UFV yoga club. “But a lot of people who were here had never tried it before.”
For the first hour of the event, participants engaged in a socializing mixer of sorts, with food and activities.
“We had a mural of what makes you happy, we had a photo booth. I went around with a Polaroid camera and gave people pictures,” said Harries.
Following the socialization, participants lined up at their mats to be led through a variety of stretches and poses.
The glowga event aimed to create an environment for students to experience different aspects of yoga. This unique class offered instructions in flow yoga — a movement-focused form of yoga with shorter durations between poses — but with a few other unique additions such as the mannequin challenge.
Typically, the yoga club will see six to 12 people at their weekly yoga sessions. Glowga brought in over 80 students.
The yoga club was once offering classes once a week, but because of the importance of the practice, they now meet twice a week.
“A lot of us on the executive have personal experience with yoga benefiting us in various ways,” said Harries. “For me it helped immensely with stress and anxiety and managing school.”
“We thought, well we love it, we want to practice it, why not provide it to the whole campus and have it during school hours so that you get a break from that high intensity tunnel vision of papers and exams.”
The activity was not only a way to promote a healthy lifestyle, but also an opportunity to strengthen social laces among students.
Irene Basilio, a business student, joined in on the fun and said she enjoyed its social aspect.
“It has unified many different students from the university. It was an easy but fun activity so everyone could feel comfortable. The fact that there were glowing lights and free food made it a very attractive event,” said Basilio.
Germain Murphy, a political sciences student, was another who attended the event.
“It was a good experience, something different for me since it has been the first time I did yoga,” said Murphy. “It’s definitely something that I plan to keep bringing in my life because it brought stability and calmness that, as students, we sometimes need. Doing yoga brings you back to earth.”
Glowga will likely remain as a January event, but Harries said that the club would like to host something similar in September. They also plan to have pop-up events like last year’s chocolate yoga and the spring equinox event.
Classes this semester are Monday from 3 to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 11:30 a.m to 12:30 p.m.
With Files from Laura Andres Tallarda
