close

Scott Township woman specializes in teaching Kundalini yoga

By Harry Funk 3 min read
article image -

As is the aspiration of many a professional dancer, Pittsburgh native Heather Ferri went to work on Broadway.

That meant living in New York City, which gave the current Scott Township resident a different perspective regarding senior citizens.

“The average 80-year-old was quite physically fit, partly because of the lifestyle of walking so much and being busy,” Ferri said. “But there was also a mentality that I found in the senior culture that was a little different than my roots of Pittsburgh: The 80-year-olds didn’t see themselves as old. And so I started to question, is there a way of aging well?”

Her answer, in part, is teaching Kundalini yoga, a discipline that combines meditation, mantras, physical exercises and breathing techniques to bring about relaxation and self-healing.

Ferri’s interest in Kundalini yoga came about as part of her trying to stay in shape for her dancing career.

“How I was working my body really wasn’t that healthy, because when you’re young, you’re like, ‘I’m invincible. So I’ll do all these fad workouts even though I’m in pain and am not paying attention to my pain,'” she said.

Following a lengthy certification process, including a stint at the Kundalini Research Institute in Española, N.M. – “I spent six weeks in training from, believe it or not, 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day,” Ferri recalled – she eventually returned to Pittsburgh to teach the discipline.

“In the beginning, it was not received very well,” she said. “People, instead of asking questions, made quick assumptions.”

Ferri since has built a client base throughout the region and beyond: Using Skype, she can work with practically anyone, anywhere. Locally, she meets with clients – including stroke victims and people suffering from memory loss, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder – either in their homes or at her Crafton studio, and she conducts programs at venues such as Marian Manor in Banksville and the South Hills Jewish Community Center in Scott.

An emphasis of Kundalini yoga is on proper breathing.

“We’re dealing with getting the respiratory system stronger, which is very important for seniors’ immune systems,” Ferri said. “We’re also working on emotions, if they’ve had surgeries with trauma, or just aging and the stress of that. They start to hold their breath, and they don’t even realize it.”

She usually meets with clients once a week for an hour’s session, with certain exercises recommended as “homework” in between.

“In order to get to the next level, they need to do things on a repetitive basis,” Ferri explained. “Part of the meditations and doing them over and over again is reprogramming, cleaning the part of your brain that forms habits. Habits weren’t built in a day, and so they’re not going to change in a day. But they will change.”

.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $/week.

Subscribe Today