As the new year crawls in, Trinity Yoga Society (Yoga Soc) maintains a bastion of tranquility on an ever-busy campus. While many of us may have jettisoned our resolutions already, this little hideout in the Atrium may be the answer to your goals for relaxation and routine. Katie Craig, Yoga Soc OCM and a second-year PPES student, spoke to The University Times about the society’s classes and everything else it has on offer.
“I joined yoga in first year. It was one of the only societies I signed up with and it’s the only one I managed to keep going”, Craig explains. As her first year at Trinity was very nerve-wracking, she found the society to be full of kind people. “It’s a massive refuge because it’s just a place to get some peace and quiet”, she says. It combines two very important things: exercise and relaxation. Craig hadn’t much experience in yoga before joining the society and she assures me that it’s very open to beginners: “It’s really for anyone, because I hadn’t really done yoga before, and I thought I always wanted to try it.”
The classes run every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Some days have two classes, in the mornings and evenings, and each class lasts an hour. Craig’s personal recommendation is the Monday evening pilates class. “I started that last year as my resolution actually. It’s slightly more intense, a bit more sweat”, she says, highlighting how yoga can be a great way to get some exercise when you have a busy schedule. It’s also a lot cheaper than many of the other yoga studios dotted around Dublin. The Yoga Society’s classes are €4 each and “you don’t have to pay a set membership where you guilt-trip yourself into not going”. It’s perfectly flexible and you can just turn up whenever you want to take a class.
The teachers come from yoga studios around Dublin and each teacher has a time and a specialty of yoga. “We’ve had some of the same teachers for a couple of years”, Craig says, and emphasises how the various teachers allow for a lot of versatility in their classes. The classes are a great way to build routine into your week. Commenting on an early morning class, Craig says “it’s most probably one of the least stressful hours of the week I had last year”. She adds that it can ultimately help with overall productivity alongside regular exercise and meditation.
Summing up the allure of the relaxing powers of yoga, Craig explains: “I think a lot of people like having it to wind down to, it’s an easy thing to commit to as well because there are so many different classes.” While the structured classes are Yoga Soc’s main focus, the society also puts on special events in collaboration with other groups throughout the year. During Mental Health Week, “Ultimate Yoga” was held with the Ultimate Frisbee team, which was essentially a unique mix of the two. This past Freshers’ Week, the society held classes outside in the sun with the Global Village. Last year, they gave free classes in aid of Suas Trinity. Craig says: “We are mainly about the scheduling but we try to do little events if people want to meet each other and have a little bit of a chat and discuss yoga.”
If you’re still looking for a way to spend your Reading Week, Yoga Soc is holding its annual retreat to an eco-lodge in Sligo from February 24th to 27th, which will entail “three nights and you just do yoga and there’s vegan veggie food”, the foolproof recipe for becoming an ultimate yogi.
