Online yoga and meditation classes offer opportunity to connect

A local yoga teacher is reaching out to seniors, hoping to help them keep active and feel connected through this time of social and physical isolation.

Oda Lindner, a Niagara-on-the-Lake teacher of yoga and meditation, is accustomed to working with seniors in her classes at the community centre.

Since all public gatherings have been shut down due to COVID-19, she’s decided to take her classes online, through Zoom, an app that is popular as a video conferencing solution for work. It is also rapidly catching on for providing social settings during the pandemic.

Lindner, herself a senior at 68, says the app is easy to use, and will allow her to connect with people in order to help them with meditation and gentle yoga movements.

The app allows people to communicate, so it also provides an aspect of socializing, to relieve some of the stress of isolation some might be feeling.

Anyone who wants to join her class can email her, and she will invite them to join. It’s pretty simple, she stresses — she provides a time, a link, and it’s just a matter of clicking on it.

“I think of it as being like a party line on the phone, with more people being added to the line. It is really very easy,” she says. “It’s interesting how technology that has been around for a while really comes to the forefront, because it meets certain needs.”

She plans to begin her classes with meditation and simple movements, and as she gets to know her students and sees what they can do, she will begin to suggest movements that are safe for them.

The sessions are 40 minutes, and her plan is to teach for 30 minutes to allow 10 minutes for questions.

Time for actual socializing will be limited, but people will at least feel connected, she says. 

There is no charge for the sessions. “I see it as a first aid for those who are suffering from anxiety. I think people really need it right now.”

The Zoom app can handle up to 100 people at a time, but Lindner plans to start slowly, see what the need is, and build from there, with maybe eight to 10 people to begin with. “We can add as we go.”

For more information email [email protected].