W hen she’s looking for a place to turn from the pressures of everyday life, Kristy Mietelka looks to her inner self for relief. The veterinary medicine junior began taking yoga classes at East Lansing’s Center for Yoga, 1770 E. Grand River Ave., in November to help direct that self-assistance.

“I have a pretty large amount of stress in my life - especially being a student,” Mietelka said. “I was looking to do something that would be a physical challenge and bring me a peace of mind.”

She is one of hundreds of people using the ancient relaxation technique to find inner harmony to help balance daily tension. Mietelka and others like her are searching for that peace through dozens of classes in the East Lansing area.

The word yoga is derived from an ancient Sanskrit word meaning “to poise the soul.” The nearly 3,000-year-old Hindu art of self-diagnosis, healing, prevention and maintenance is proving to be the right ticket for Mietelka.

“It’s very relaxing,” she said. “As my mind eases, the tensions and stresses from the whole day just fade away.”

Ruth Fisk, owner of the center, said she defines yoga in two ways for her beginning students.

“Yoga brings together the mind, body and soul,” she said. “And it’s time you set aside to take good care of yourself - bringing oneself to oneself.”

There are several styles of yoga, but all focus around various breathing techniques, stretches and chants to help center the mind, body and soul.

Breath is considered to be life and breathing to be the voice of the spirit. Its depth, smoothness, sound and rate reflect one’s mood.

Stretching is meant to maintain the integral to the functional design - and health - of the body by constantly changing its orientation to gravity.

Fisk reminds her students to “feel the depth, intensity and wonderfulness” as she instructs them about new stretches.

“It’s amazing what a slight adjustment in the way you hold your hips or bend your legs can do,” she said. “The simplest things can open your body up so much more to the energy within.”

Chanting resonates therapeutic vibrations through the body, especially the nervous system. The air pressure created by vibrating the vocal cords increases in the lungs, pushing added oxygen into the bloodstream.

Fisk has been a certified yoga instructor for 18 years and has studied the art for more than 20 - though yoga wasn’t always her passion.

“I got into yoga the same way many people get into what they end up wanting to do,” she said. “I wanted to do something else - to be a dancer.”

But suffering a neck sprain changed all that when Fisk’s trainer suggested yoga to aid in her recovery.

“Yoga fulfilled in me what I wanted dance to,” she said. “It’s a physical practice, but it’s way more deeper than that.”

Now she owns a yoga center complete with two calmly painted blue and yellow studios and two massage tables.

“Massage isn’t necessarily a part of yoga, but it is complementary to it,” Fisk said.

Fisk’s studio also has a supply of props, ranging from pillows and blankets to blindfolds and ropes, to aid students in their stretches.

“There is a tendency to equate yoga with just stretching,” yoga instructor Vicki McGuffin said. “Many people are turned off because they feel they may not be able to do a posture or two.

“It’s not that simple though. There is also strength, endurance, stamina and balance in the equation.”

That is one reason why there are so many types and paces of yoga classes offered throughout the area, Fisk said.

“People need to feel a sense of comfort, belonging and safety to truly allow themselves to slip away,” she said.

Fisk said some of her classes have people from all different age groups - she has instructed people younger than 20 years old and older than 70.

The unavoidable aging process is one reason Lansing resident Marge Mexbauer began the new year with yoga in her sights.

“I find that as I age, my body has gotten stiffer and stiffer,” said Mexbauer, 43. “After being in accidents and falling while Rollerblading last year, I needed to do something to loosen myself up.”

In addition to age and fitness-based classes, there are many yoga courses designed uniquely for heath reasons, such as prenatal and cancer recovery courses.

Dr. Gwen Wyatt, an associate professor at MSU’s College of Nursing, is rounding out a two-year study on the effects of yoga on the physical and emotional recovery of women after breast-cancer surgery.

With about a half year remaining before releasing the study’s report, Wyatt said a correlation between the ancient techniques and recovery is evident.

“There is still data left to be collected, but from what we’ve been hearing from the women is that they love it,” she said. “Anecdotally, they say they feel much more relaxed and are realizing they can lift their arms to reach that top cupboard again.”

Although no muscle tissue is cut during breast-cancer surgery, Wyatt said many patients notice their arms and shoulders stiffen afterward.

The phenomenon is known as “freezing shoulder,” a natural protective instinct meant to shelter a damaged part of the body, Wyatt said.

“The stretching exercises seem to help the women overcome that unconscious tension,” she said.

And relaxation seems to be the key to unlocking the mysteries of yoga and is a major theme threaded throughout various exercises of the ancient art.

At the end of each class, Fisk has her students lay flat on their backs in a dark room while taking deep and eased breaths with closed eyes.

“Let go of that deep-rooted fatigue and just relax,” she instructs them with a soothing voice.

Fisk rings a bell that chimes three times, signaling to her students that it is time to sit up in the classic “lotus” position - legs crossed and wrists propped atop the knees - chanting a soothing “om” together before dispersing.

“The bell is believed to dispel unwanted spirits,” Fisk said. “The ancients believed that through controlled breathing relaxation, bad spirits were released out of the body and into the air in the room. The bells cut through them and dispel them.”

After chanting, the students described their bodies as feeling warm and re-energized, a reassuring feeling for people like Okemos resident Barb Culton, 51, who chose taking yoga over enrolling in an aerobics class to shape up.

“It’s a gentler and quieter approach to taking care of your body,” she said. “And if you ask me, it’s a lot more fulfilling and self-rewarding.”