De-stressing with SGA yoga

By: Christine LaFrancesca, Staff Writer

Last Friday in the Potomac lounge, Towson’s Student Government Association hosted “Yoga with SGA,” which featured three, hour-long yoga sessions held by Sid Yoga instructors.

Sid McNairy, founder and owner of Sid Yoga, has been at his York Road location for four years and is passionate about helping students engage in physical activity.

“I was an athlete in college,” McNairy said. “I also coached football when I was in college in northern Illinois. I want students, athletes and other-wise, to understand how much yoga and meditation can improve your life, along with help you find strength and stability, both mentally and physically.”

Missy Ronan, a sophomore who chairs the Government Operations Committee in the student senate, was worked to help plan the event.

“I wanted SGA to have an event that featured an alternative way to deal with stress,” Ronan said.

The idea for the event came to her after she got more involved with yoga in the last couple of semesters, she said.

McNairy has been inspired by various yoga teachers and coaches such as Rodney Yee and Baron Baptiste. Baptiste’s techniques are now the core foundation of many Sid Yoga sequences. McNairy is confident in these practices and ensures that they are keys to living with power.

“I went to Goucher and was on the swim team,” Pilar Gimenez, an instructotor at Sid Yoga, said. “Once I graduated, I really missed doing something physical everyday, but was looking for a change and something new to try. Stepping into Sid’s was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

McNairy and Gimenez were excited to see that many Towson students participated in both the yoga and meditation seminars and hope to get even more students in the studio, both as members and teachers.

“We have a 300-hour teacher training program that we are really glad students have taken advantage of,” McNairy said. “A lot of student athletes have come in to see the kind of job opportunity that awaits them. That’s another reason why I push our teacher training program so intensely. I want students, especially athletes, to know that there are options for them once they graduate.”

As students concluded their mediation session with Gimenez, students shook her hand and thanked her for her guidance.

“That’s what it’s about,” Gimenez said. “I love when I can tell that students really got something out of one of our sessions. I makes me feel accomplished, like we’re helping them find relaxation and peace.”

Ronan said that McNairy was very cooperative when planning the event.

“He was awesome, he was wonderful,” she said. “He was really excited about the event. He wants to do it pretty regularly.”

Ronan said that she and McNairy discussed doing yoga events on campus around every midterm.

— Cody Boteler contributed to this article.