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People Who Make San Antonio Great: Yoga instructor Shari Gaiennie

Shari doesn't just practice and teach yoga, she lives it. And she wants all of San Antonio to benefit from the ancient Indian discipline.

Several dozen people are posing in a park on a Saturday morning, being led by yoga teacher Shari Gaiennie.

Her students are all on mats, concentrating quietly and carefully. All ages, all sizes.

"The goal of yoga is to unite, to yoke, to unite with the breath,” Gaiennie said. “It's not about standing on your head or putting your legs behind your head or getting in a perfect lotus position.”

Yoga’s an ancient Hindu discipline of muscle control and meditation. The word yoga actually means “union” in Sanscrit. Practitioners strive to improve strength and stamina by assuming specific poses and suppressing distracting thoughts.

“It's a way of life, a way in which you conduct yourself with others, with yourself,” Gaiennie said.

She should know. She's been teaching yoga for nine years, and even started San Antonio’s nonprofit Yoga Seva Institute in 2012. The organization’s goal is to offer free beginner yoga classes, often in San Antonio parks, like the session she hosted on a July morning at Martin Luther King Park just east of downtown.

"The odds are that they've never even been to the park,” she said of her newest members. “But now they know there's a park there, and how beautiful it is, and they've had a yoga practice.”

The basic health benefits of yoga have been known for centuries: It reduces stress, increases balance, core strength, and flexibility, as Jeff Brady discovered trying several basic moves.

"Notice the sensations all along that left side of the body,” said Gaiennie, as she conducts one Saturday morning class.

New research indicates that yoga also improves digestion and sleep, and can even help ward off fatigue, back pain, and depression. It even helps some patients manage Parkinson's disease and cancer.

Gaienne thinks San Antonio needs more of it.

“We’re an emerging yoga town,” she said.

And yoga is emerging in the Alamo City largely due to Gaiennie's efforts. Through her Yoga Seva Institute, she and others have taught free introductory yoga classes on the International Day of Yoga to soldiers at Ft Sam, for the San Antonio city council, for beginners at Leon Valley, for children, for victims of domestic abuse, and many more.

"There's a segment of the population that thinks yoga is just for rich white women,” Gaiennie said. “And that's not true. Yoga is for everyone. Yoga is a gift from India.”

Dr. Hetal Nayak agrees. She’s a retired anesthesiologist and a board member at the Yoga Seva Institute.

"Shari is just a selfless person, which is a huge quality in a yoga teacher,” Dr. Nayak said. “For instance, consider the Yoga Seva Institute. Seva is a Sanskrit word, which means “serving all,” selfless service for all. And she does follow that daily.”

Gaiennie’s a committed yoga student, teacher, ambassador and advocate, convinced that all of us deserve the benefits of bending.

That's why Shari Gaiennie's another one of the people who make San Antonio great.

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