SXSW to Badge-Holders: Namaste

Every morning at SXSW Interactive, SX staffer Ari Styles led a yoga class for attendees. She led us through gentle stretches, deep breathing, and at least one hard pose designed for strengthening. Each day's exercises were different, though each day had a theme of yoga poses to help people who spend most of their time sitting in a chair and working with a keyboard. As we lay in Savasana nearing the end of each class, Ari spoke briefly (“Letting go... letting go... let go.”) to lead us into deep relaxation. Finally, as we sat in prayer pose, she ended with a spoken gratitude practice.

This was a really beautiful place to connect IRL and to feel better both mentally and physically throughout the festival.

Looking back over Dr. Keely Kolmes' list of five things we can do now to improve our mental health from her Therapy 2.0: Mental Health for Geeks panel, Ari's yoga class gave us four of the five things!

Here's the list again, from an earlier post:

1. weekly gratitude practice 2. breathing and mindfulness practice 3. connecting with others 4. exercise 5. thought tracking

See you all at yoga next year at SXSWi 2010!