Alex youth celebrate Mandela Day with yoga
ALEXANDRA - Alex youth look to yoga for support as they celebrate Mandela Day
Alex was home to yoga on Mandela Day when professionals of this world-renowned ancient science and discipline introduced it to others at Thusong Youth Centre.
Alex Yoga Club, formed in 2011, hosted close to 100 Alex youth who were shown exercises for relaxation through breath control, meditation and body posture. Club founder Dr Marianne Felix said it was befitting to expose this form of exercise to Alex’s children on Mandela Day as they needed a platform to help them to discover themselves, their potential and gain confidence to achieve their dreams.
Felix said, “We target the Grade 11 and 12 pupils who are at a critical stage and faced with anxiety, panic, uncertainty and shut down when confronted with challenges on their future, a stage when they need self-awareness and self-trust through skills in calmness and confidence which yoga provides through practise.”
Club members Bongi Nguza and Emmah Tsotetsi who also teach others yoga attributed improvements in their lives to the discipline. Tsotetsi said it made her a calm person, able to overcome the negative conditions of Alexandra. “With its skills and practice, nothing will be difficult or impossible,” she said.
“I would like to help others acquire yoga skills and become better people.”
Nguza, who lost her mother when she was eight years old, doesn’t know her father and was brought up by her granny, said yoga helped her overcome depression and stress. ” I couldn’t cope in school and with peer pressure,” she said.
“Yoga gave me inspiration, ability to work hard and overcome any challenge.”
Another member, Bantse Mashaba, said he lacked direction and yoga gave him mental strength, endurance, focus, positivity and the ability to maintain positive friendships.
Fellow club member, Terrence Edwards, who attended the University of Johannesburg and recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin, USA thanked yoga for his success. “I was intelligent but panicky and it calmed me down, stopped me from anxiety and sweating during examinations, gave me a purpose in life and confidence to apply for scholarships, which helped get me through my studies,” he said.
Sam Tsotetsi said yoga gave him spiritual guidance, skills in discipline, self-pride and confidence, which helped him get his job.
