It’s 6:30 a.m- an hour most college students prefer not to hear or talk about. But Samantha Sorin glides out of her bed and opens her curtains, revealing a still, gray landscape outside of her dorm room. The only movement is the sun inching its way up the distant horizon. Sorin moves to the center of her room, sits down, closes her eyes, and begins to meditate.
For this one hour, Sorin can stop thinking about her GPA; she can forget about her Psych test creeping up; she can put that Women and Gender Studies deadline aside.
While most people associate yoga with the long, lean bodies of Jennifer Aniston and Madonna, they forget about the benefits it can bring to the mind and soul. But not Sorin. Ever since she started practicing yoga, she has experienced these overlooked benefits. She insists that yoga has reshaped her lifestyle; she deals with stress differently, makes healthier decisions, and is more mindful of her actions.
When Sorin describes her pre-yoga self in high school, she says she was the typical student who wanted to do well, but she frequently got stressed out over her grades.“I wasn’t dealing with stress in a healthy manner. There was no proper channel or avenue,” says Sorin.
Then one day she decided to take control of her stress and her life.
“I decided to take up yoga, but not for the physical reasons. I wanted it to help me be more calm and relaxed. I wanted to be stress free.”
And ever since the Junior Accounting major first stepped on her yoga mat, she insists that she is a new person. “Yoga made me more mindful and aware of the things around me,” says Sorin, “So not only am I more cognizant of them, but I put more care into the things I do and the things I am a part of.”
As Sorin gained more experience with yoga, she was also gaining the attention of her instructors. They wanted Sorin to take yoga to the next level, and gain her certification as an instructor herself. Sorin gladly accepted the challenge, and two summers ago, she began her 200-hour certification training in Manhattan. She practiced yoga for nine hours a day, and according to Sorin, the certification process was not only physically taxing, but also mentally exhausting.
“We had to study anatomy, physiology, sutra, memorize all yoga poses, and create our own sequences for homework.”
One month and 200-hours of practice later, Sorin came out with her new certification. “I was so relieved and excited that I cried!” exclaims Sorin.
She claims the most exciting part about getting her certification that she can bring yoga into her students’ lives, “Yoga helped me in so many ways, I wanted to be able to help others.”
Now, Sorin has her eyes set on her next endeavor, which is to become 500-hour certified. She will undergo 300 more hours of mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting training but she says she’s more than ready to take that on. Once she earns her 500-hour certification, she will be one step closer to her ultimate goal; “I would just adore having five yoga studios in Santa Barbara, California” she admits; but first, she wants to graduate with her Finance Degree from TCNJ and work for a few years so she can save up her money.
“I want to be debt free first. If I’m debt free, I can be worry free…and I’m all about being worry free,” she says with a smile on her face.