Free Zoom Yoga Lets Students Stretch Coronavirus Stress Away

OAK LAWN, IL — Sometimes when the universe hands you coronavirus, you gotta make lemonade, and that’s exactly what yoga instructor Denise Cholewa has done. Since Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s shutdown of non-essential businesses to bend the COVID-19 curve, the owner of Yoga and Beyond in Oak Lawn has been holding free yoga classes on Zoom.

“I have students who’ve been with me for years, and they still want to take classes because it makes them de-stress during the pandemic,” Cholewa said, who has no income coming in since the stay-at-home order was issued. “Yoga is so healthy for you, especially now. I’m not charging for the classes. We all need to help each other.”

Cholewa, whose motto is “you are braver and stronger than you think,” is using her yoga classes to help her Zoom students deal with their fears and anxiety over COVID-19 and sheltering in place.

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Students are guided through movements geared especially for current times, designed to boost immunity (tapping the thymus gland above the heart), and kneeling and leg extension stretching exercises to improve the circulatory system.

“We also do hand mudras movements to help deal with anxiety and stress,” Cholewa said. “There are certain ways you hold your fingered together to strengthen bones.”

Cholewa, of Bridgeview, teaches classes at First United Methodist Church, 10300 S. Central Ave., Oak Lawn. She was looking to open a studio, but the pandemic has put those plans on hold.

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“I don’t have a lot of overhead,” she said. “I’m big into natural health. I’ve been teaching yoga for 19 years and it has been fantastic for me.”

She has loyal cadre of students, some of whom have been taking her classes for ten or eleven years.

“They’re a little older, but they’re getting the technology and going through with it,” Cholewa laughed.

Anyone interested in an evite to Cholewa’s Zoom yoga classes can email her at yogidenyse@sbcglobal.net or call 708-837-3500.

“Everyone is a little hesitant about their first time at a yoga class,” she said. “This way you can try yoga at home for free. When it all reopens maybe you’ll come take a class. That’s a win for me.”

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