 "Photo: ‘Neka Jones/Echo staff photographer")
Ask Donna Fulcher about the meaning of yoga, and she will tell you it’s about a lot more than developing strength and flexibility.
“There is a spiritual component to yoga,” she said. Using yoga requires one to recognize that “we are all a part of one divinity.”
Fulcher teaches yoga on Fridays in the Walker Physical Education Complex at noon. The first class was this past Friday. The one-hour class is offered free of charge in room 101-A and open to walk-ins anytime.
Fulcher described yoga as a means of strengthening the mind, body and soul.
At the start of each class, Fulcher rallies her students into a circle, and they begin their exercises to the tune of woodwind instruments to set the ambiance.
The Friday class has students from all walks of life, including a retired toxicologist and a football coach.
Fulcher said she was introduced to yoga when she was 10 years old.
She said she and her sister would catch the train from the Bronx to Manhattan to take yoga classes that she described as exciting.
“As I grew older, I became active in athletics and the military,” she said. “I never forgot the roots of yoga and daily strengthening of my spirit and mind.”
Fulcher said she learned from those who mentored her that it’s important to balance the mind, body and spirit.
She also teaches yoga at Patanjali's Place Community Yoga Space in downtown Durham, the Senior Center for Living, the downtown branch of the YMCA and Treyburn Country Club.
According to Fulcher, the word “yoga” is more accurately described by the Sanskrit word, “asana,” which refers to the practice of physical posture or poses.
There are eight limbs of yoga, and Fulcher said she plans to introduce them all in the class.
The three most often mentioned limbs are yama (focus, concentration and meditation), asana (physical poses) and samadhi (self-awareness).
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