Glancing at the Intramural Field on their way to school, past the pick-up soccer games, golf carts and powder puff football games taking place, students will see yoga classes in full session. Fifth-year philosophy student Marc Nguyen teaches the classes four to five days a week.
Nguyen originally got his start with yoga shortly after he was injured in a motorcycle accident in September 2010. The exercise was suggested to him as a calming physical practice, he said, but ended up doing wonders for his shoulder. Now he is sharing his knowledge with fellow students as a pro bono yoga instructor on the Intramural Field.
A couple years ago, Nguyen began taking classes at the John Wooden Center and later at YogaWorks, a popular yoga studio across Los Angeles. Yoga quickly became more than a mere means of rehabilitation, as Nguyen soon adopted it as a lifestyle.
“The day that I decided to do yoga forever, it was after a class. I was walking and I didn’t have any thoughts for 30 seconds,” he said. “I was just this walking thing with the universe. And I (thought), ‘What is this? What am I feeling? What am I experiencing?’ It’s that sort of awareness, that sort of bliss that brings me back to practice every day.”
Nguyen began immersing himself in the practice of yoga and realized he wanted to teach others as well. In order to do so, he completed a 200-hour course from YogaWorks, certifying him to teach at gyms or privately.
“(YogaWorks) is so comprehensive in (its) teaching,” he said. “And this is when I exploded as a person. It was like another chapter of life.”
Nguyen started volunteering with Yoga for Flexible Futures, a program that teaches yoga classes for kids in Los Angeles. He also began holding free classes in racquetball courts at the John Wooden Center to share his passion for the practice with others. His classes grew by word of mouth and he soon had a handful of attendees at each of his hour-and-a-half-long classes.
However, his classes were repeatedly either relocated by racquetball players who had first priority over the courts or broken up by gym staff for liability reasons.
“After about a month of doing that, I got the second warning,” he said. “I kept getting moved rooms, sometimes twice in one day. So I said, ‘That’s it, that’s the last straw. This is ruining the environment.’”
Nguyen’s students suggested he move classes outside. However, he initially refused because this conflicted with his training, which told him practicing outside would distract the ability to meditate because of the exposure to bugs and other elements. But his inability to teach inside the Wooden Center made this the next best option.
“Now, (teaching) outdoors is my favorite thing to do in the world,” Nguyen said.
Many students have been inspired by Nguyen, said fifth-year philosophy student Radhalila Reinhofer, who was so taken by his teaching that she has considered the possibility of teaching yoga in the future.
“I never really thought of maybe one day trying to learn more (yoga) and then teaching it, but he makes it so fun-looking, that I’ve thought about it now,” she said.
Nguyen’s yoga sessions begin with asana, meaning “posture” or simply the practice of sitting still. Asana is the first step to achieving mental calm, Nguyen said. He then transitions into pranayama, or breath work. His ultimate goal is for his students to develop a sort of automatic meditation practice.
“His energy is very fresh,” Reinhofer said. “The way he talks and the way he walks around, he tries to make you comfortable. He tells you, ‘You can do the awkward pose. It’s fine. It’s awkward; everyone knows. You don’t have to pretend like you’re some cool person doing the awkward pose.’”
Unfortunately for his students, Nguyen’s classes will soon come to an end. In August, he will travel to Can Tho, Vietnam, with a program called Volunteers in Asia. There, he’ll be teaching English to facilitate cultural exchange, another one of his passions. He said he also hopes to teach yoga there.
Looking ahead to next June, when he returns to the U.S., Nguyen said he is unsure about his plans.
“People ask me, ‘Where do you see yourself in five years?’ and I really dislike this question,” Nguyen said. “But I know I’ll be doing yoga. It’s something I can do forever.”