yoga for technical writers – Karen Rempel – New York Senior Technical Writer Team Lead

New York Technical Writer Thanks All Who Helped Yoga Outreach

Thanks to my family, friends, technical writing colleagues, friends from the Society for Technical Communication, and technical writing clients who pledged me for the 30-Day Challenge. Your support really helped motivate me to get to the mat! Together we raised $940 for Yoga Outreach. That’s awesome!

I have experienced many benefits from the challenge, including being relaxed, getting a good night’s sleep, and also enjoying a warm heart from knowing we are all helping bring yoga to people who can benefit from it, perhaps the most of all, and wouldn’t have access to yoga without Yoga Outreach.

Here’s what one Yoga Outreach program participant said about coming to a Yoga Outreach class: “I found other yoga classes to be threatening almost, and you know keep up, keep up… it was very non-threatening and comfortable which is a great place to start because I can feel threatened and stuff like that.”

There is mounting scientific research that shows yoga can be of great benefit to survivors of trauma, which many participants in Yoga Outreach classes are. Yoga Outreach has pioneered a trauma-sensitive yoga training program, which they have taught to yoga teachers and other workers in various health-care settings in Vancouver. They plan to expand the training throughout BC and Canada over the next 5 years.

Thanks again to everyone who has made a donation and helped me exceed my fundraising goal! If you have been meaning to make a donation but haven’t had a chance yet, you still can until Nov. 30.

I am so inspired by the innovative trauma-sensitive programs that Yoga Outreach offers to men, women, and youth facing challenges with mental health, addiction, poverty, violence, trauma, and imprisonment, that I have decided to sponsor a program through my corporation. If you are interested in supporting community programs through corporate sponsorship, please contact Delanie Dyck, Executive Director, at 604.385.3891 or delanie@yogaoutreach.com.

Back to Top

New York Technical Writer Participates in Yoga Outreach 30-Day Challenge

Once again, Vancouver’s Yoga Outreach is offering a 30-day challenge to raise money to help support their programs, which serve men, women, and youth facing challenges with mental health, addiction, poverty, violence, trauma, and imprisonment. Technical writing involves sitting at a desk, computer, or conference table most of the time (though there are occasional fun and illuminating tours at client sites!), so I find that yoga is a very welcome activity for stretching and easing tight and sore muscles.

I loved taking the challenge two years ago, so I’m going to give it another go, October 15 to November 12. I am collecting pledges of 50 cents to a dollar a day. I’ve set a goal of raising $300 for Yoga Outreach. But I am the one who will benefit the most, by shedding the technical writer’s typical computer-generated tension at the end of each day! If you’d like to help, you can make a donation of any amount on my Giving Page (now closed, but you can donate to Yoga Outreach directly on their website). Or, to truly experience the benefits of yoga, take the challenge yourself!

Yoga Outreach partners with volunteer yoga teachers, community groups, social service agencies, and correctional facilities to provide mindfulness-based yoga to often overlooked adults and at-risk youth. Yoga can help people to have a positive experience of self and a tool for coping when life gets hard.

Back to Top

Save

New York Technical Writer Teaches the Ultimate 15-Minute Yoga Class

The most refreshing 15 minutes of the week!

For the past 8 months, during a very fun and satisfying technical writing contract, I offered a free 15-minute yoga class at lunch time. The participants were my colleagues at the Vancouver-based credit union Coast Capital Savings. This was an adaptation of the 60-minute class I developed for the Society for Technical Communication, following the same principles of being accessible to people of every fitness level, with poses suitable for all of us while wearing office attire, and not requiring any special equipment.

Weather permitting, we did the class in the parking lot, and later on a grassy lawn across the street. When the weather was cool or wet, we did the class in a large meeting room, with lots of windows and light coming in on two sides. When indoors, I encouraged people to kick off their shoes. Outdoors, people often felt more comfortable keeping their shoes on. Sometimes the women did this class in their high heels! How’s that for adaptability!

Over this period of time I perfected a series of poses to loosen all the tension from the neck, shoulders, and upper back. It is mostly standing poses, though when indoors I like to include Cat.

Karen’s 15-minute yoga for the office class

Horse (Qigong) – loosens shoulder joints
Bear (Qigong) – loosens joints from ankles to shoulders, and softens neck
Carnival (Kundalini) – loosens upper back
Little wings (Kundalini) – pulverizes remaining tension in upper back
Mountain with side bends (Hatha) – uses breath to loosen ribs, open sides
Tree (Hatha) – brings balance and resilient strength
Cat – a final stretch to open space in the spine and chest

I guarantee that you will feel lighter, looser, rejuvenated, and refreshed after doing these poses! Many times I was amazed at how the tension and pain in my shoulder (which I injured some years ago while working long technical writing days at the computer) vanished from doing this class. The participants—my software developer, subject matter expert, business analyst, user acceptance, business improvement engineer, training, change manager, tester, and quality assurance team mates—also reported feeling benefits such as improved mood and reduced physical tension. But more than the physical results, the benefits of sharing this special time with my colleagues was the most uplifting aspect of this class. I think we all had fun, and that this somewhat unconventional office activity brought us closer together! Namaste.

Back to Top

Save

New York Technical Writer Celebrates Making a Difference

On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, I taught a class called Yoga for the Office for the Vancouver chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, a professional organization for technical writers. This is the second time I have taught this course to technical writers, and I developed it to help counter-act the strain on our bodies from working at a computer. Of course this type of yoga is helpful for anyone who works at a computer, not just technical writers! I was inspired to teach this course when I developed the strategic plan for the chapter in May of 2008. As I pondered what I could bring to the chapter in my role as president, the vision that emerged was Making a Difference.

I finished a degree in ecopsychology at Naropa University in 2007, and since then I have been discovering different ways to use what I have learned to serve my people… which includes family, colleagues, and my professional organization, as well as other communities. In the busy city of Vancouver, I think we all belong to multiple communities. And to the community of the planet as a whole.

I believe that many people are concerned about the challenges we are facing as a planet, such as climate change, pollution, social injustice, and economic difficulties. I also believe that people want to make a difference, and do many things in their lives that are making a difference already. So I decided it would be empowering and lively to celebrate the ways we make a difference. This theme still excites me, and it carried me through the challenges I occasionally faced as chapter president for the 2008-2009 term. I believe it has infused our chapter membership of technical writers with enthusiasm about being a part of our STC community.

It has been very inspiring for me to hear of the many different ways our members serve their people: bringing food to people living with HIV or AIDS and their families, street-level outreach for the homeless, dog therapy for palliative care patients, helping friends and family members with child care, and many, many other wonderful contributions. It is not surprising that technical writers are so passionate about service when one considers that we have all chosen a type of work that is service-oriented, helping our clients, companies, and the end users of our documentation to solve their problems. One of the ways that I enjoy contributing is through teaching yoga to people who otherwise might not have an opportunity to experience it.

Back to Top