Empire’s yoga instructor stretches body and mind

By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
The one question Jessica Sharry hears more often than any other is, “What is the purpose of yoga?” The Empire Community Center yoga instructor has had plenty of practice answering. “It’s a method to work out all of the kinks, to stretch and strengthen,” Jessica says. “It’s a great physical workout.”
When she isn’t bartending or waiting tables at The Friendly Tavern, Jessica is teaching Ashtanga yoga on Wednesdays at Empire’s town hall, as she has for the last 18 months, or at Sacred Space in Traverse City. As far as she knows, she’s the only person teaching this particular type of yoga in the area.
Ashtanga yoga is a physical and mental exercise or practice that synchronizes breathing and physical stretching in a series of poses called “asanas” that generate heat and sweat, just as other workouts do. It also focuses the mind.

“Asanas are just as beneficial as any sport or exercise,” Jessica says.
The difference, she explained, between other types of workouts and yoga is, anyone can do yoga — young or old, slim or corpulent, injured or sick. Her contagious laugh bubbles forth as she recalls the one type of person who cannot do yoga. In the words of the grandson of the oldest living Ashtanga yoga master/instructor:
“…a lazy man,” said Sharath Rangaswamy, with a wide smile. “A lazy man cannot do yoga.”
There are eight limbs in Ashtanga yoga, and the third limb is the asanas or postures that Jessica’s class teaches. A person who is not lazy may begin learning a primary set of poses, (such as those taught in Empire), and, once mastered, (as determined by an instructor), consider progressing to the next level. In all, there are six levels of postures ranging from primary to advanced. Most people, though they spend a lifetime practicing Ashtanga yoga, never reach the more advanced levels. Many are comfortable to practice and perfect the primary level of postures.
Unlike other yoga classes, where the instructor leads the class by doing the poses with the students, Jessica said the Ashtanga instructor gives commands verbally while making numerous hands-on adjustments to each student’s pose, correcting postures and reminding students to breathe. After the physical workout, students are encouraged to sit still in meditation. Her students tell her that they leave the 90-minute class feeling better than when they came in, both physically and mentally. The “coolest thing” about the Empire class in particular, she said, is that many are now doing just exactly what they thought they couldn’t do in the beginning.
“It quiets the mind, so you can realize your full potential. Some people say ‘self-realization’ or ‘enlightenment.’ Yoga is not a religion, it’s a practice. It’s a physical and mental practice that can also be a spiritual practice — that doesn’t adhere to any one god or religion — but it doesn’t have to be spiritual.”
Ideally, class would be two-and-a-half hours long, Jessica says, to accommodate a period of meditation that follows the intensity of the workout — but no one today can devote that much time, including the instructor.
In her free time, she enjoys practicing her yoga postures, which she calls her “daily vitamin,” learning Reiki (a Japanese healing art) or playing bass guitar with a friend.
“For a yoga instructor I’m kind of weird, because I like heavy metal music,” she says with a belly laugh.
One of Jessica’s other loves, running, was supplanted by yoga when she found that the vigorous and engaging exercises satisfied her need for a physical workout and balanced her energetic personality.
“I do have a lot of energy, and yoga gives me more, but it’s a more even, balanced energy,” she says, adding that her nickname at work used to be “Stressica.”
A quote by Patanjali, who wrote the yoga sutras, one of the oldest yoga texts, is among her favorites: “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.”
She says yoga helped her through the deaths of her father and grandmother, a marriage and a divorce. She was so taken with its grounding influence on her life, that she trained as a teacher at the Yoga Hawaii studio in Honolulu with instructors Anthony Carlisi and Rupali. Once, during the 30-day intensive workshop, Carlisi was “so into it” that he led his class in mediation for an hour past time to go home.
“That’s a good example of where yoga can take you,” Jessica says, emphasizing that any style of yoga can confer this type of benefit and many others. “Find a style that suits you,” she says.
Drop-ins are welcome at her Empire class, held at 11:15 a.m. on Wednesdays during the summer and Saturdays the rest of the year. “Be ready to sweat,” Jessica says. The free class is offered through the Community Center, and in-class donations are gratefully accepted. Outside of her regularly-scheduled Empire and Traverse City classes, she offers private instruction to small groups in people’s homes. For more information, call 228-7835 or email her at yogagrrl75@yahoo.com.