HUNTINGTON — A new year means a new start for many, and those at Brown Dog Yoga hoped to inspire a greater interest in health and well-being in the community by greeting 2015 with a very public yoga flash mob in Pullman Square Thursday afternoon.
Dozens of participants, bundled up to brave the near-freezing temps, rolled out their yoga mats in front of Marquee Cinemas as calming music played over the speaker system. For about five minutes, they stretched and posed, gathering the attention of several people who were either on their way to the movies or out to eat.
“We’ve never done it before, but one of our students saw it on the Internet and said we need to do this,” said Katrina Mailloux, co-owner of the Heritage Station studio. “We thought it would be a great time to do it on New Year’s Day because most people are recovering from a night out or going to the movies and we wanted to highlight yoga in our community… and show that yoga can be done by anyone. We have many ages, shapes and sizes here.”
Chan Vass, who works as an executive secretary at Cabell Huntington Hospital, said yoga is a great stress reliever for her and generally makes her a better person.
“I do yoga sometimes at lunch. I’ll shut the door sometimes if I’m having a particularly stressful day and I’ll just stand on my head for a little bit and breathe,” she said. “It’s wonderful. It gives you peace of mind. It’s good for my body, it’s good for my mind. It’s an incredibly accepting community. It has given me flexibility. I’m 59 and I can do backbends and handstands and headstands now – things I that never, ever thought I would be able to do before. It even makes me aware of my diet now. I eat better because it helps my practice.”
Mailloux said the yoga community is growing in Huntington and she would love to see more people embrace it.
For more information about Brown Dog Yoga, including class times, visit www.browndogyoga.com or call 304-617-6240.