Members of the Yoga Club are stretching into their second semester on TCU’s campus.

Tuesday evening, the club held a free yoga class for all students at the TCU recreation center. The class was taught by Ashley Brand, Karmany Yoga teacher and a manager at Lululemon.

Brand said she enjoys teaching classes at TCU and appreciates the value that the club is offering to students.

“I absolutely love it,” Brand said. “I really value the connection that doing yoga regularly brings in my life, and I think it’s fantastic that there’s something like this here.”

Brand said it’s important to take time out of your day to be quiet and calm.

“You can pause and go deeper inside yourself,” Brand said. “Just take the time to feel your heart beating inside yourself and just breath.”

The students’ energy and enthusiasm for yoga was exciting for Brand.

“I love coming here,” Brand said. “The students always have bright smiles and good energy. It’s so fun.”

New member Summer Naquin said she enjoyed the class and is having a good experience in the club so far.

“I loved the class,” Naquin said. “I’ve been having a great time. It’s really been a great way to distress from my day and be active.”

Every Wednesday, the Yoga Club meets at 8:00 p.m. and has a different yoga teacher leading class, first-year biology major and officer on the outreach committee, Lindsay Shanley, said.

“We bring in different instructors sort of on a rotation,” Shanley said. “We bring in yoga instructors from the TCU classes and Ashley from Karmany and Lululemon.”

The club has various instructors to introduce members to many forms of yoga.

“We really try to let the students experience a wide variety of yoga instructors because honestly, every single teacher is so different,” Shanley said. “The classes can be immensely different. Sometimes yoga can be meditation based or sometimes you are sweating so much you’re slipping off your mat.”

The club hosts several classes open to all students throughout the semester to expose people to the practice.

“We decided we wanted a campus wide event where everyone could experience yoga,” Shanley said. “A lot of people have never done it before or are scared to do it. This is a really good way so they didn’t have to join the club and commit, but they really got to open their eyes to what yoga really is and how it can help you and your body.”

Shanley said she appreciates the positive mental and emotional effects yoga has had on her life.

“It’s such a great way to calm your mind especially during all the stress of school,” Shanley said. “When I can take a few moments just to focus on my breath and look inside myself and my body and focus on how I’m feeling on the inside, it makes me feel a thousand times better.”

The Yoga Club has doubled its membership since its first semester on campus. The club now has about 70 members. Although the registration date to join ended last week, Shanley said if a student really wants to join then they can contact the club’s president, sophomore graphic design major Alexis Schrepple.

The main mission of the club is to share the love of yoga with as many students as possible, Shanley said.

“The goal is to spread the awareness of yoga and how much fun and work it can be,” Shanley said. “When people start doing it they realize their body feels so much better and their mind feels so much calmer.”