A Bakersfield College mathematics professor passes her teachings in the classroom along to a yoga studio.
Kathleen Rush is a certified Iyengar yoga instructor and a mathematics professor. She began her studies in yoga in 1994 while living in Nepal and traveled to Pune, India in 2002 to study yoga with the Iyengars. She regularly travels to study at the Iyengar Institute in Los Angeles, where she completed a three-year teacher-training program in 2004.
Rush holds a degree in mathematics and advanced degrees in psychology and physics. Her endearment of yoga is based on it balancing the physical, mental and emotional bodies.
Rush instructs yoga classes at Yoga Space located at 1201 24th St.
“I started my yoga studies in the Iyengar yoga system while living in Nepal,” said Rush. “I also studied Ashtanga yoga. I was intrigued and traveled to Mysore, India and later to France to study more of the Ashtanga.”
After studying both yoga techniques, Rush decided to keep her profession in Iyengar because, over time, it provided her with the path she needed of opening her body and mind in a very progressive, intelligent and positive way.
“Iyengar yoga had a way of focusing my mind inward that left me feeling calm and centered,” said Rush.
Rush is also enamored with the teaching of mathematics.
“I loved to plow through seemingly impossible problems only to find the ease of them after working for long hours,” said Rush. “It was very soothing to preoccupy myself with mathematics. Later, I became awestruck at the sheer power of mathematics to convey in a language of what physicists and most scientists need, and rely upon, to understand the world around them, both external and internal.”
Rush plans to continue teaching both yoga and mathematics in the coming years. She believes it is a never-ending process on which she grows and learns.
Kelly Mee, a BC student, is in the teacher-training program at Yoga Space and attends workshops led by Rush.
“I have taken workshops led by Kathleen and found them very informative,” said Mee. “Kathleen teaches very different from what I am used to, and I found her classes are focused deeper to the body. I highly recommend.”
Rush strongly advocates that other individuals try the practice of yoga.
“My suggestion to prospective yoga students is to try yoga for six months and see what happens. Yoga does purify the mind and the body, so one should expect some possible negative qualities like soreness in the body and negative judgments in the mind as part of the process,” said Rush. “It is best to allow them to arise and drift away. With regular practice, and over time, these will fade and you will reap the fruits of the practice. It will deepen you and connect you with your own true nature and at the same time respect your fundamental beliefs, including any religious or non-religious beliefs that you may hold.”