By MEGAN GARNETT
Student Writer
Standing on your head can help improve your memory, according to Venkata Moorthy, Ph.D.
Before teaching at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, Moorthy taught botany, genetics and microbiology among other classes at St. Joseph’s College in Bangalore, India for 10 years. After that, he taught for four years at The University of Oklahoma.
Now, Moorthy has been a full time professor of biology at NWOSU for 21 years. Botany, pathogenic microbiology and immunology are among his many courses.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Moorthy teaches a yoga class between 5:30 and 6:30p.m. at the J.R. Holder Wellness Center on NWOSU’s campus. He has been teaching yoga at Northwestern for the last ten years and has practiced yoga for more than 30 years.
“Yoga is connecting three things together. Body, mind and spirit. It helps people focus,” Moorthy said.
To become a perfect person, Moorthy said that it is important to remember five P’s.
Proper breathing, proper exercise, proper relaxation, proper diet and proper attitude.
He explained that proper breathing is important because it helps to supply enough oxygen. “Blood carries oxygen everywhere, so that helps with producing energy. That’s why people who practice yoga are very energetic,” Moorthy explained. “If you breathe properly, you get a lot of energy.”
In his yoga classes, Moorthy asks his students to stand upside down. “I make them stand upside down so that their brain cells get a high amount of blood flow that rehydrates the brain,” Moorthy said. “That’s how neurons work. If they’re dry, they do not function.”
By following these five P’s, he said, “It just makes an individual perfect.”
Students can attend Moorthy’s classes for free by bringing their student ID. NWOSU faculty can also attend for free. He explained that the public is also welcome to attend and that the class is free to those who hold a membership to the Wellness Center.
For his yoga class, Moorthy recommends his students bring their own matt and wear something comfortable. He also asks students to remove their shoes.
He also said that it is important not to eat heavy food before class.
“You can eat something that is light, like milk or juice. Why is that? Some of the positions make you bend your stomach or bend your body, and at times you might have vomiting or throw up sensations, and that can mess up the digestion.”
Moorthy said he would encourage anyone to try yoga, regardless of age or level of fitness.
“There are no special qualifications to start yoga,” Moorthy said. “Yoga is for anybody. No age restriction, nothing. Even when people are not healthy, they can practice yoga. What I do is I start with the basics in the fall semester and continue with the spring. And the spring is more advanced. I have some people who have been coming for the past ten years.”
Liz Parkhurst, a physical therapist, is one of Moorthy’s students. She has been attending his yoga classes for seven years. She and her friend and classmate Liz Bittle, who has been attending for three years, are in their sixties. They both expressed that the class is open to all levels.
“[Moorthy] encourages beginners to come and when he does that, he’ll back up a little bit and walk us through it verbally,” Parkhurst said.
Bittle said, “In the first semester, you’re just getting your breathing down. Along with that you’re concentrating. People think that you’re looking at each other, but no you’re not. You’re trying to concentrate.”
Parkhurst said, “It takes a lot of focus and that’s the other benefit of doing it. You’re just able to shut everything else out. It’s actually a form of meditation and relaxation.”
“It energizes me,” Parkhurst continued. “Just the way you feel when you leave…I can come in dragging from the office, but when we leave, we have all kinds of energy.”
Bittle added, “It’s just leaving everything at work and what you’ve got going on other places in your life and you just have a clear head when you leave. “
Parkhurst said that her interest in yoga came from her time as a physical therapy student. She said that she learned that “yoga is the basis of all exercise. It’s the oldest form of exercise that there is.”
She said that she uses components of yoga every day in her work with clients and patients. Parkhurst said that she has even suggested yoga for her patients who are beyond their injury or problem.
Moorthy said that he would like for anyone who is apprehensive of joining a yoga class to simply try it.
“Some might say, ‘I’m not flexible, I haven’t done that,’ but trying is always good. Never so no to anything. Try.” he said. “Good things come out of bad things, so if someone’s muscles are so stiff that they can’t bend, they don’t have to do it all. If you try today, you can do this much. Tomorrow, a little more, a little more and that’s what I do.”