In the first yoga class Joanne Wohlmuth ever took, students were just saying “om” and meditating. It wasn’t terribly exciting, but the stress of being a third year college student in New York poured out of her and she spent the entire class crying.“I came out of class and gave my candy bar to a homeless person in the subway,” said Ms Wohlmuth. “I thought if that (the release of stress) is going to happen when you practice yoga this is something I need to try.”Her yoga teacher told her not to bother with giving up cigarettes, if she practised yoga, her addictions would eventually give her up. And that is exactly what happened. She realised that you could get more relaxation from deep yoga breathing, than from breathing in toxic cigarette smoke. After taking only a few classes, she gave up smoking in one go.She started teaching yoga when she returned to Bermuda after college, and went into partnership with Frances Marshall in 1994 when they formed The Yoga Centre on Victoria Street. This week they are celebrating their 18th anniversary with a series of free and almost free classes for people in different segments of the community. Until four years ago teachers at The Yoga Centre taught on a volunteer basis with class fees going back into the centre. This was considered an act of “karma yoga”. Now the six teachers at the Centre offer a few personal classes in addition to the karma yoga classes, but most of their classes are considered for the benefit of the community.“Karma yoga is selfless service,” she explained. “It means that what you do comes back to you. The more good you do for others, then that will reverberate back to you. It is not for the sake of it. If you do it so that it comes back to you, you have already tarnished the whole concept. In college I lived in The Village in New York. I cut cheese for a health store as part of my karma service to the yoga centre there. There are eight different aspects of yoga. Hatha yoga is the physical experience you see most people do in the west.”She said there are other aspects of yoga, such as meditation, spirituality, prayers and devotion. There is even laughing yoga which teaches people to laugh to reduce their stress levels.Ms Wohlmuth has a degree was in journalism and a Master's degree in management and human resources. She worked for many years at the Human Rights Commission (HRC).“I found it very rewarding,” she said. “Even up until about two years ago I was doing some consultancy work with them. Right now I work as the chairperson for the Peace and Social Justice Committee of the Catholic Church. I am still involved in justice issues and will always be.“This is what is beautiful about yoga. When you practice yoga it opens you up to all those things that you are interested in and helps you to connect. As a young person, when I practised yoga it was a time for me to grow within myself and to strengthen myself and to understand how I could function in the world. I will always do that but I also will do things around health and wellness.”One of her yoga classes is a Christ centred class.“There is a lot of misunderstandings with some people about the practice of yoga,” she said. “They associate it with India and Hinduism and another religion, but it has come a long way now. You have people who understand that yoga is a tool like software or hardware. You take the skills you learn in yoga and apply them to whatever you are interested. Whatever religion you are, it will help you grow spiritually.”One thing she wanted to come out of their 18th anniversary celebrations was the idea that yoga is for everyone, and anyone can benefit.“As we move forward we want to be able to engage and help people more in terms of yoga therapy,” she said. “We could help people lying in bed to do yoga. You may not be able to engage the main part of your body, but you can stretch your arms. The muscles in your arms go all the way down to your fingertips. There are many ways. I know of one guy who practices and teaches yoga who is paraplegic. The stereotypical yoga follower is someone sitting on the floor with their legs crossed who is super healthy and super young, but yoga is for everybody irrespective of what age you are at. It can help you in whatever capacity you are in.”A free seniors class will be offered today (Monday) at 10.30am at The Yoga Centre at 7 Victoria Centre. A class for the stressed out unemployed person will be offered on Wednesday at 4pm at The Yoga Centre and there will be a laughing meditation class to end job stress at 12.10pm on Friday at The Yoga Centre for $5. For more information telephone 295-7525 or see them on Facebook by Googling “The Yoga Centre” and “Bermuda”.