Graceful Planet, Student Group,

Joining For Yoga Day USA

The Graceful Planet Moving Arts Center in Sandy Hook and Global Voice, a student peace activist organization based at Newtown High School that is dedicated to finding truth and understanding on a variety of human rights issues, will co-sponsor free yoga classes at The Graceful Planet on Saturday, January 29.

  A hatha yoga class will be presented from 9:30 until 10:30 am, and a family yoga class for all ages will then run from 10:30 until 11:15 am.

Although the classes will be presented without charge, donations will be accepted. All donations will be forwarded to Global Voice’s Tsunami Relief Fund.

Yoga Day USA is being presented across the country in part thanks to a challenge by Yoga Alliance, a nonprofit national organization based in Clinton, Md., that was founded to set standards for yoga teachers and yoga teacher training schools.

Challenging adults and children to embark on a healthy new lifestyle in 2005, Yoga Alliance is partnering with teachers, studios. and schools across the United States to offer free yoga workshops on January 29.

Throughout the country, from New York to California and Minnesota to Mississippi, Yoga Day USA will give people still waiting to try yoga the opportunity to sample a class. The event will also provide “regulars” a time to try something new.

“Yoga is growing in popularity,” said Sandra VanOosten, the executive director of Yoga Alliance. Nearly 15 million Americans have practiced yoga, according to a recent Yoga Journal Harris Poll, with an additional 35 million people interested in trying yoga in the next 12 months.

According to Ms VanOosten, yoga offers benefits for all body types and levels of fitness.

“People think they need to be flexible to come to a class, but that’s not true,” she said. “Come as you are. You can expand your own possibilities by participating in Yoga Day USA.”

According to a recent Harvard Medical School survey, 90 percent of Americans who have practiced yoga have found it helpful for a number of health conditions including back or neck pain, anxiety, arthritis, depression, and fatigue.

“Yoga makes you more stress hardy, relaxes and rejuvenates you, improves yours strength and provides a general sense of well-being,” Ms VanOosten said.

In addition to Yoga Alliance, Yoga Day USA is being sponsored by Yoga Journal, LA Yoga Magazine and Yoga International, Wellworks Business Systems, and the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

The Graceful Planet is in The Mill building, at 75 Glen Road in Sandy Hook. Call 426-8215 for additional information.

Additional event locations are listed at www.YogaDayUSA.org.