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Loving My Body (and Yours) Through Yoga

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BC chapter.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that this week is Love Your Body Week here at Boston College. Put on by the Women’s Resource Center, this seven-day event is designed to help you appreciate your body and cast aside negativity long after the week is over. On Wednesday night, at 5:30 p.m., I attended the “Love Your Body Through Yoga” class at the Plex. Taught by the Assistant Director of Fitness & Wellness (meaning she is in charge of the Group Fitness Program, Personal Training Program, Small Group Fitness Program, and Wellness Program), Hilary DeVries, the class was meaningful, and healing.

Yes, yoga is a spiritual practice and, yes, we’re always told that there is no competition with your neighbor, only a focus on you and your mat. But this session, somehow, felt much more relaxed and introspective than usual. We didn’t do many Sun Salutations, because the focus was more on natural movement than on the moves found in a Power Yoga class. I can’t touch my toes unless my knees are completely bent (even when I’m laying on my back), and I push myself to go into certain binds during other classes, but I didn’t worry about either of those things on Wednesday. I bent my knees in forward fold, instead of trying to keep them locked, and I spent a lot of time in Child’s Pose. I didn’t worry about sucking in my stomach in Bridge Pose or Warrior II. I figured out what hurt and what didn’t, rather than trying to attain “ideal” fitness. Because as it turns out, the only ideal of fitness is tailored to you—it’s the one that you’re comfortable with.

My favorite part of the class was the passage Hilary read from Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga. If you’re interested in finding it, it is entitled “Day 118.” “There is the you and the not you…you are not your thoughts,” a quote from the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, ties together the meditation. It shows us just what it says—that we aren’t only the thoughts “about all we could do if we left class ten minutes early, adjusting our shirts so we won’t look fat, feeling tired or annoyed, exhilarated or unhappy.” We aren’t only the thoughts that push us to over-Plexercise or be involved with a sports team, to be involved with three different service trips as well as hold a job, to deprive ourselves of sleep in order to both finish our schoolwork and drink on the weekends. We aren’t the thoughts that over-extend us. We aren’t the thoughts that compare us to others. We aren’t the thoughts that push us to an unattainable perfection, be it in terms of body image or not. There’s something deeper there, and it can be found on the mat. 

 

Meaghan Leahy is a 21-year-old native New Yorker and senior at Boston College, whose hips only sometimes lie. When she's not wishing she were as honest as Shakira, she can be found running, Band-ing, or public speaking; in addition to writing for HC BC, she is a member of the Screaming Eagles Marching Band, Word of Mouth, and loves a good lap (or two, or five) around the Res. Meg is passionate about running and fitness, is a trained lifeguard, and works at the campus gym Equipment Desk. A highlight of her Boston College career thus far was being a TA for Intro to Feminisms. She has interned at both Anthropologie and the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, New York, so even though she is pursuing a Communication and English double major with a Women's and Gender studies minor, she is still trying to map it all out. She really, really hopes to graduate with a real job and everything. Please hire her, despite her severe Diet Coke addiction. Her redeeming skills and qualifications can be found on her LinkedIn account.
Kelsey Damassa is in her senior year at Boston College, majoring in Communications and English. She is a native of Connecticut and frequents New York City like it is her job. On campus, she is the Campus Correspondent for the Boston College branch of Her Campus. She also teaches group fitness classes at the campus gym (both Spinning and Pump It Up!) and is an avid runner. She has run five half-marathons as well as the Boston Marathon. In her free time, Kelsey loves to bake (cupcakes anyone?), watch Disney movies, exercise, read any kind of novel with a Starbucks latte in hand, and watch endless episodes of "Friends" or "30 Rock."