Balclutha health and safety officer Jocelyn Lindner is holding a free yoga session at Balclutha’s Cross Recreation Centre in support of Mental Health Awareness Week next month.
Ms Lindner said she began her own yoga journey after being an "active child" and, later, a cheerleader during her United States upbringing.
"I moved to the University of Hawai’i and essentially went from being super active to doing nothing.
"So I went to yoga classes and, before long, my teachers encouraged me to train as an instructor."
She had taught intermittently during the past decade, but maintained her personal practice due to the profound mental and physical wellbeing it brought.
She believed everyone could be a "yoga person", and wanted to share her passion for the discipline through the free vinyasa session, open to all ages with "moderate" fitness.
"We all have jobs with different demands and pressures, which expose us to psychosocial risks.
"Part of my work as a health and safety partner is educating people about those risks, and ways to navigate and counter them."
WorkSafe defined psychosocial risks as things like high workload, low job control, poor relationships, bullying and isolation, and recognised them as genuine workplace health and safety hazards, she said.
"Mental health at work isn’t just about individual resilience; it’s about the conditions people are working in. Left unmanaged, these risks contribute to stress, burnout, and in severe cases, suicide.
"Yoga can be a highly effective way to improve physical and mental health. Often when I suggest yoga to people as a method for combating stress, they’ll say, ‘I’m not a yoga person’. But yoga is just moving and getting to learn about your body, at your level of ability, so I think everyone has potential to be a yoga person."
She thanked community-owned facility the Cross Recreation Centre for partnering with her to deliver the free session on October 7.
