In May 2019, YEU International started the implementation of the Hippocampus project offering yoga sessions for the staff of YEU Interns and CEV Interns. Hippocampus is a two-year project, started in October 2017 and will finish in September 2019, funded by the European Union through the Erasmus Plus Programme and coordinated by the University of Salamanca through the GRIAL Research Group. The Hippocampus project aims to address problems such as increased stress (not only the management of existing stress situations but also their elimination) and lack of concentration by promoting the well-being of young people through the practice of a series of techniques derived from Yoga.
This current project includes a programme of 8 lessons which will be completed by the end of June. The good weather allowed to do two lessons at the Parc du Cinquantenaire, but the first ones were done in the office: in the first case the participants were able to enjoy the benefits of Yoga, especially related to greater ease of finding concentration, to improve their breathing through exercises and having a feeling of intense and lasting relaxation.
The teacher of the course was Emmanuelle Lambert who, with her preparation and professionalism, created a friendly atmosphere in the class. The first lesson was particularly important for the participants because it allowed to experience the connection between mind and body and to reach a greater level of awareness about their physical state: stretching exercises, development of the sense of touch through the contact of the floor and some parts of the body such as the stomach and chest, and concentration techniques were the basis of the first lesson. The other two lessons followed up the trail of the first one, adding new yoga techniques, the first positions and the first breathing techniques, repeated several times to allow it to be released.
The participants seemed enthusiastic about this course, also because at the end of each lesson, the teacher suggested some breathing and relaxation techniques that can be reproduced in the working context, therefore also sitting on a chair: so it is a series of skills that can be useful in your daily life. Through breathing control exercises, it is possible to achieve a rebalancing of blood pressure and a reduction in hypertension. From the mental point of view this translates into a reduction of anxiety and greater serenity, improving the quality of life of the participants.
