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Just breathe: Alumna teaches free yoga at Lakeland

Sep. 21, 2020

Jenny (Kjin) Tanck '15 teaches free weekly vinyasa yoga classes at Lakeland's Center for Community, Equity and Belonging in Grosshuesch Hall. During the classes, which are sponsored by Lakeland's Counseling Center, she helps participants breathe, move and explore the practice of yoga together.

She was introduced to yoga in 2011 during her freshman year at Lakeland thanks to some free yoga classes offered to students.

"I remember arriving to my first class, excited and nervous to try this new practice," said Tanck, who is a yoga instructor at the Sheboygan Falls YMCA. "What initially brought me to yoga was the physical movement, stress relief and to help cope with my anxiety. I quickly began to realize there was an internal shift, and larger forces within the universe pulling me to my mat.

"As my physical practice evolved, I started noticing the benefits of yoga on the mat and off the mat and in my everyday life. I was more grounded, peaceful, present and filled with more love for others and myself. I began to see and feel all of the beauty that surrounded me and that was within me."

Lakeland is where Tanck fell in love with yoga, and it's where the idea for her practice was born. Life threw her a curve ball in January of 2017 when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but she continued her practice and became a certified 200-hour registered yoga teacher (RYT) in April of 2017 through Yoga on the Lake in Kohler, Wis.

"I felt the strong desire to become a yoga instructor so I could give back to the university that so generously gifted me my practice," said Tanck, who lives in Sheboygan with her husband, 2015 Lakeland graduate Trevor Tanck, and their son, Micah. "I am honored and pleased to offer these classes for free to the students, staff and faculty at Lakeland."

Tanck said it's a privilege to witness, see, feel, and experience all the benefits yoga has to offer. She says yoga is a physical, emotional and spiritual practice.

"It helps us peel back the layers to reveal our true, authentic selves, that we are all connected and carriers of light," Tanck said. "Lakeland students experience their own light and share it with everyone else on campus and out in the world.

"Yoga has taught me that everything you need already resides within yourself. We all hold the ultimate power to better ourselves, through movement, meditation, breath and mindful living."

Students and employees can get more information about current classes being offered by contacting Alex Liosatos, director of health and the Counseling Center, at LiosatosA@lakeland.edu.