Health Champion: Strike a pose to achieve balance and reduce stress

Sherri Allen, Distribution Technology leader for Florida Power & Light, practices yoga four to six times a week. She is training to be a yoga instructor and will complete her teacher training in January 2012

More than 20 years ago, Sherri Allen, Distribution Technology leader for Florida Power & Light, happened upon a home exercise yoga video. At the time, she was living in Germany with her two young children and needed a convenient way to exercise at home.

"I was looking for exercise that required little to no equipment, and that I could do while my children were napping," Sherri explains. "The only exercise video available in English at the movie rental store was for yoga. So, I tried it."

Sherri had always been exercise conscious, but she had never tried yoga. She was immediately surprised by the stress-relieving qualities of her newfound sport. "Yoga was a lot harder than I expected. The most surprising thing about yoga was how relaxed and rejuvenated it made me feel," she said. "While practicing yoga, you use muscles you don't know you have."

Fifteen years later, Sherri was still consistently practicing yoga through home videos. In 2007, she joined FPL and signed up for a membership at the Juno Beach Fitness Center. After practicing yoga at home for so long, Sherri was growing bored of videos and decided she needed a new challenge. So, she took her first yoga class at the Fitness Center.

"Classes offer more of a physical challenge than videos while also focusing more on the spiritual side of yoga," she said. Sherri now practices yoga four to six times a week, exclusively through classes. She is currently training to be a yoga instructor, and will complete her teacher training January 2012.

"Yoga teaches you to be an observer," explains Sherri. "It helps me — in both my professional and personal lives – not get tied up in life's daily stresses. Because of yoga, I look at things in a more centered way."

To learn more about ways to reduce stress and achieve mental balance, visit My HR Direct, Health & Well-Being.