Women in Jamaica and the Diaspora gifted with free yoga classes
WITH over three decades as a leader in yoga and wellness, Sharon Feanny is also deeply invested in promoting a healthy lifestyle among Jamaicans. So when the novel coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, that April, Feanny jumped full force into teaching yoga and fitness classes online, several times per week, without charging. Her goal was to serve her community during the extremely stressful period of lockdowns. She continued to offer free classes for over six months, with hundreds of people in attendance each week.
“Of course, it was an enormously tumultuous time for all of us. Collectively, we were lonely, confused, and completely distressed. As much as I was seeking to help people stay afloat during all of the uncertainty, being of service in that way was also helping me too,” Feanny reflects.
Moving your body, she continues, is a crucial component of stress management. “Yoga and movement help us process and release emotions so they don’t remain in the body and create greater emotional issues and disease,” she explains.
Yoga also prepares the body and mind to sit in meditation. Meditation quiets overactive thoughts, and helps you sift through the noise of the outer world, and access the inner peace and wisdom that reside in all of us.
The combination of yoga, fitness, and meditation, as well as consciously eating clean, wholesome foods, is a formula for wellness that has been paramount during the last couple of years, especially, Feanny notes. Not only do these practices help to build the immune system and stave off illnesses like COVID-19, but they also help us process the bombardment of information, unpredictability, and negative news. Essentially, she says, together these practices create an equilibrium that is needed for both mental and physical health.
“I’ll be the first to say, though, now more than ever, there may also be times when you need additional help. If things get too difficult to manage, and these essential lifestyle practices are not enough, I always encourage my students to seek medical advice if their mental or physical health has become unbearable in any way.”
With the pandemic seemingly on the out, Feanny encourages people to remain vigilant about taking care of their health. We are still living in tumultuous times, she reasons, with war, crime, and the underlying threat of another outbreak of real concern, alongside the discomfort of establishing a new normal as society reopens.
This is why she has doubled down on her commitment to offering yoga and meditation classes for free, online, every week, for the rest of 2022.
Every Tuesday at 9:00 am, the veteran yoga instructor and wellness expert will be teaching a free, online yoga and meditation class. The series of classes, which has been averaging approximately 100 registrants per week, are specially tailored for women in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the Diaspora.
The free offering is made possible by corporate partner Sagicor Group Jamaica. It’s an initiative that fits within Sagicor’s ongoing commitment to the development of Jamaica through health and education.
“This class has been a lifeline for so many people, not only in Jamaica, but across the Diaspora. I am grateful that Sagicor came on board to help me continue to offer this class for free every week. I hope more people will take advantage of this opportunity to access inner peace and move their bodies through the difficulties of the time. We all need spaces for community and rejuvenation, and this is one you can count on each week in the comfort of your home,” Feanny shares.
Registration for the classes is available on Feanny’s website at www.sharonfeanny.com.
