Dr. Katie McIntyre’s Ashtanga yoga practice, comprised of a fixed series of postures and synchronized breathing, results in a strong body and a calm, centered mind – two things she recognized as essential right now, especially for those teaching, studying, and working at BSC.

During the fall 2020 term, McIntyre, assistant professor of sociology, brought her off-hours expertise to the Hilltop – offering virtual and outdoor yoga classes to faculty, staff, and students.

“Yoga is what you need it to be,” she says. “You just have to find what aspect works for you.”

After receiving her teaching certification in 2019, McIntyre was encouraged by colleagues to start a class for faculty and staff, which led to a weekly virtual series of 30-minute sessions throughout September.

She started the sessions with breathing exercises and positions to do in a desk chair, bringing attention to a straight posture to awaken the spine and shoulders. Later into the month, McIntyre taught sun salutations, seated positions, and sematic poses, which focus on slow movement and neutral positions.

McIntyre has also held multiple Ashtanga classes on the quad for students. Just like the faculty and staff sessions, she approaches the student classes with the same goal to devote time for yourself.

When she was a graduate student, taking her first yoga classes, the practice is what pulled her out of an emotionally and mentally stressful time in her life. McIntyre attended her first yoga class in 2016 at Birmingham Yoga in Forest Park, where she completed her training last year.

“I kept going and didn’t stop,” she says. “I used to have a really hard time with things I had no control over, and yoga really helped me.”

McIntyre ended up working at Birmingham Yoga during the week, all while taking as many classes as she could. The job paid for most of her classes and pushed her further into the community of students and teachers who walked in and out of the studio each night. Eventually, the owners asked her when she was going to start teaching and encouraged her to begin the process.

McIntyre began teaching the Monday community class – the same class she went to as a beginner – in late summer 2019. As a teacher, she became an even more active member of the yoga community and dove deeper into the philosophy of yoga, which she describes as simply showing up for yourself.

“We have this idea that yoga is a tiny woman who can fold herself into a pretzel and has muscles everywhere but doesn’t look like she does,” McIntyre says. “But the community is made up of people from every background who needed something, and they found it in yoga. Maybe they ended up in a bad mental health space, or they just wanted to find more exercise, but it is way more obtainable than what we are currently sold.”

This story was published in the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of ’Southern, BSC’s alumni magazine.

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