Samantha Inman was going through a very difficult time in her life. She struggled with anxiety, depression and minor post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

For Inman, yoga was the answer and hopefully the answer for others.

Inman is co-vice president of CSU Yoga Club, founded in fall 2010 by CSU students Claire Heywood and Elena Reisterer.

When I started my practice I found a strength within myself again, Inman, a sophomore human development and family studies major, said. And I learned how to create peace with the war going on in my head.

As a yoga teacher, Inman said she has seen the impact of yoga on her students lives, including a girl suffering from chronic depression realizing that life isnt worth wasting and a cancer patient finding gratitude.

Heywood, president of the club and yoga instructor at the CSU Rec Center, said she and Reisterer realized there was a community of yoga-minded students on campus that lacked a forum to connect with each other.

It pretty much started just as a community of people who wanted to talk about yoga and do yoga together, Heywood, a junior English major, said.

But as time went on, we noticed some leaders in the worldwide yoga community who were gearing the already benevolent, good-hearted community of yogis towards social change, she said.

Heywood said because of this, CSU Yoga Club decided to take on activism and philanthropy work by donating proceeds from donation classes to Musana Childrens Home in Uganda.

The clubs goals include supporting local yoga studios and the CSU Rec Center, spreading awareness about the benefits of yoga and doing what they can to create change in the world.

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CSU students find healing, activism through yoga