March 4, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

Photo by LYNDA STRINGER

Rachel Barkley and her business are both undergoing a transitional period as the new fitness venture seeks a permanent home.

Barkley launched Fresh Yoga & Wellness in September 2015 and held classes at 3rd Street Nutrition until recently. She decided to seek out a location that could offer her students more flexible class schedules and until she finalizes those plans, she’s holding classes, at least through March, in the former Lawler Vision Center building on Van Buren Avenue.

“It’s a smaller setting over there, so we will have smaller classes for now, but I added a 9 a.m. class to see if I could hit some new people,” Barkley said.

The class schedule includes a Tuesday and Thursday 5 p.m. class, an early bird Wednesday class that meets at 5:15 a.m. and the 9 a.m. class, which meets on Tuesdays. She also holds classes in the park on occasional Saturdays. That class will meet today at 8:30 a.m. at Dellwood Park.

“I have a community of people who have been coming to these classes and Kellye Cooper, one of my students, actually provided the space for us for March,” Barkley said. “It’s temporary right now.

I’m getting the word out to gyms and churches and chiropractors and counselors.”

Barkley has also started booking private sessions for clients.

“These sessions, which are one on one or a small group setting, are structured to meet specific needs, whether it’s emotional or spiritual or different physical modifications they need and don’t feel comfortable in a group setting,” she said. “It is more personally targeted with journaling and meditation.”

Barkley is a registered Holy Yoga Instructor and in May will earn certifications in Christian Yoga Therapy and Trauma Sensitive Yoga. She has been a personal trailer since 2008.

She said meditation is a big part of Holy Yoga. The difference in this Christian-based form of the art is that the students meditate on scripture.

“It provides that shift in perspective that this life is a process and we can release striving for perfection and pick up walking with the Holy Spirit and seeking the Lord for guidance and walking step by step in what he wants to stir in us today,” she said.

The group classes incorporate meditation, but not as in-depth.

“There is more journaling and discussion in the private and small group sessions,” she said.

Barkley said yoga is becoming more popular as a referral from the medical community because of its stress-relieving focus and scientific studies that have revealed the impact that stress has on overall health.

“People realize they are stressed, but they don’t realize how much stress affects them,” she said. “I love the study of it and seeing the people that are coming to my class and experiencing that they are able to work themselves out of that with breathing exercises. They are able to let go of it spiritually and give it to God.”

She said the reaction from the community has been extremely good since she opened for business, although she admits it raised some eyebrows.

“Some people have said, ‘Hmm, yoga and Jesus? I didn’t know those two could go together,’” she said, laughing. “But, they have been really supportive.”

The difference in her class is inserting Biblical scripture and connecting yoga’s concepts to the Christian faith.

“Yoga isn’t a religion. It’s a physical practice. Yoga means to yoke and in Holy Yoga we yoke the breath, movement and meditation. The meditation side is where you would insert a religion or thought process. We meditate on the Bible, on truth,” Barkely said. “A lot of the verbiage that is used in a holy yoga class you would find in other yoga classes, surrendering a pose, being rooted or grounded or fixing your gaze. Our verbiage is tied to the Gospel.”

Rather than practicing self-actualization or transcending oneself, Holy Yoga recognizes that “there is no real self-realization with knowing who you are in Jesus Christ,” Barkley said. 

Barkley, who has two kids and a husband – Drew Barkley, a teacher and coach at Mount Pleasant High School who fully supports her, –is finding herself in a transitional period as well.

“For me personally, I am in a process of letting go of my expectations for what the business should like and I’m letting God mold and lead,” she said.

Surprisingly, she has found that part of the molding process has come from some of her students.

“Every person that has come to the classes has brought something to the table. They’ve brought encouragement and support and love when I’ve needed it or Kellye providing the location or another friend saying they would help get the word out. You can’t do it alone and I’ve been overwhelmed by the people that he has put in those classes. He has them there for a reason,” she said.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant, TX-based freelance writer and owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.