Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Gym- Yoga

Posted by Ensign Chandel (Science) in Gym- Yoga

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Gym- Yoga
Posted by… suppressed (12) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Yoga was a great exercise for both mind and body, and Leah was a huge proponent of whatever form of exercise supported a person’s physical and mental health. Yes, they had to do cardio and strength training to pass the Starfleet fitness tests, but beyond that Leah wanted people to do what they enjoyed. She had done yoga before but it was not her go-to choice. She had been honest with Chandel that she preferred more active exercise. However, she was entirely open to spending time with someone doing a more low-key exercise. Besides, as a former competitive dancer, she knew the importance of stretching and flexibility work.

Arriving at the gym the next morning they were running the yoga class, Leah looked around to see if Chandel had opted to join in too. She was ready in her leggings and tank top and kicked off her soft flats as she grabbed a yoga mat from the wall.

~Leah Hart, NP

Chandel was indeed there in her own tights and tank top, hair braided up on her head in a coronet. She made her over to the wall to collect her own mat and smiled at Leah.
“Good morning, Counselor. Glad to see you could make it. I love starting my mornings like this and save my more active exercise for after shift. I enjoy swimming too but have to do without that onboard ship. Imagine having a pool on ship, that would be a lot of water weight.”

Ensign Chandel Sci

Leah grinned. “Definitely a challenge, but I agree it would be really nice.” She gestured wth her head for them to head over to where others were getting set-up. “I can’t say I’ve done a lot of yoga specifically, but I done a lot of body weight exercises and stretching over the years,” she said, rolling her mat out and stepping on the corners to encourage it to lay flat. “I was a dancer for a lot of years, so maintaining strength and flexibility was vital.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I can imagine, unfortunately I was never that graceful. I have the tendency to trip over my feet.” Chandel said with a grin as she set up her mat near Leah’s. “What kind of dance and did you ever dance professionally?”

Ensign Chandel Sci

Leah blew out a breath. “My family always said that I was dancing as soon as I was walking and wanted to imitate my abuela’s flamenco. But I started ballet when I was three, flamenco at five, and then later picked up ballroom, contemporary and lyrical.” She chuckled. “I just loved it all, but I focused on ballroom and flamenco as a teenager and I competed right up until I started nursing school and then I had to stop.”

She sat on her mat and lifted each leg in turn, slowly turning her ankles in circles to encourage better flexion once they got going.

~Leah Hart, NP

Chandel copied Leah in her stretches as they continued to chat, “I know what ballroom is, but what exactly does Flamenco entail?”

Ensign Chandel Sci

Leah broke into a beaming smile. “Oh, the best way to describe it is storytelling through music and dance. The performers dance and sing and it’s accompanied by instruments and percussion, which usually is partially provided by the dancers as well, with their feet or hands, and also with handheld instruments. There’s a whole set of rules to it in some of the most traditional forms, a progression for the different types of dance movements you’ll see. The music itself is very particular too in order to be considered actual flamenco.” She couldn’t help but get excited when she spoke of this ancient art that was so ingrained within her.

She shook her head. “Sorry, it’s rather hard to explain and much easier to show,” Leah added, moving to turn her wrists.

~Leah Hart, NP

“It sounds fascinating. Where on earth are you from? It sound like this is part of your culture?”

Ensign Chandel Sci

Leah finished with her wrists and sat cross-legged. “So, my family is from Spain, and we have strong ties to the regions of Andalusia, Basque Country. But while the rest of my family was all born in Spain, I was born and raised on Aldebaran Three. Hence the slight accent and stocky build,” she said with a light laugh.

“What about you? Where do you call home?” Hart asked.

~Leah Hart, NP

Chandel smiled softly as she finished her own stretching and moved into her favourite position, the child’s pose. She relaxed fully with her eyes closed as she answered. “My family are rather nomadic in nature. I was actually born on our freighter, the Archimedes but we settled in New Orleans for a while . I love New Orleans. The language, culture, food, music. It seemed like home after so many years on a freighter.”

Ensign Chandel Sci

Leah smiled. “It’s nice to have that. This is my first ship assignment, and other than travelling between Adebaran and Earth, I’ve not spent much time on ships. What’s it like to spend a long time on one?”

~Leah Hart, NP

Chandel shrugged as she moved into a standing position, preparing for the series of asanas. She had read the series of poses used in this program and it worked its way through various standing poses, to sitting/floor poses.
“It can be boring during traveling time between ports but that’s when I got my studies done so I could enjoy discovering our port of calls. So many new cultures and peoples. That’s what I enjoyed the most. Though my studies led me into studying the stars and planets. I have always been fascinated by the variety of life on different planets.”

Ensign Chandel Sci

Leah understood that. “Same. And having been an ER nurse, I saw people in some of their most difficult and vulnerable times. I like learning different ways of helping various issues. It’s why my research is all about cultural bases for mental health practices.”

Their teacher started up some background music and started the class. Leah was an excellent student and meditated on a regular basis, so yoga was not so different. She knew how to drop into her breath and liked that the flows loved in conjunction with breaths in and out.

They could talk unobtrusively while they practiced, though Leah didn’t want to disturb Chandel. She’d have to gently test it. “Have you done yoga long?”

~Leah Hart, NP

With her eyes closed as she breathed in and out of her poses. She only opened her eyes to double check which pose the instructor was doing before closing them again. She looked like a graceful willow in the breeze as she moved. “Yes, my mother taught me yoga years ago on our freighter. I have kept it up daily since.”

Ensign Chandel Sci

“That sounds really nice actually. It’s nice to have regular rituals.” Leah’s dance background gave her a great deal of flexibility as well as the ability to follow instructions. But she didn’t know the poses, so had to watch what the instructor was doing and mimic the pose. They weren’t difficult, but she wanted to be sure to get the form close and in a way that felt good to her body. The strength elements were not a challenge for her Aldebaran-influenced build but she found syncing the breathing with the moves more challenging. She focused on that for awhile.

As the class was nearing the end and before they moved to the final meditative breathing cooldown, Leah leaned over. “Got time for coffee or something after before shifts?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“Absolutely, though mine will be my after yoga smoothie.” Chandel said with a smile as she moved down into the child pose, forehead on the mat. Her eyes were closed as she relaxed her whole body. She loved this time of day and used to entirely blank her mind. It made the start of her day good.

Ensign Chandel Sci