October 16, 2020
Menti yoga
Image of Jeremy Bellucci
Jeremy BellucciData Scientist

Friday mornings at Mentimeter mean two things...yoga and breakfast! Our Data Scientist Jeremy talks us through how yoga at Menti was born.

My name is Jeremy Bellucci and I am a data scientist at Mentimeter. I lead a yoga practice in the office on Friday mornings for those willing to get up a bit earlier and participate. I think yoga is a beneficial activity in the office because it helps overall fitness, is inclusive, creates a sense of humbleness, and bonds people together while having fun. 

My official yoga journey began over three years ago with my first trip to India and I was introduced to the Ashtanga style of practice.  Ashtanga yoga is a dynamic form of yoga that is the same sequence of postures every time one practices.  The idea behind Ashtanga is that once one has learned the sequence, one can focus on deepening breath and meditate while moving. My experience with yoga before Ashtanga was one similar to ‘Hey guys, let's just be uncomfortable for an hour or so’ without any structure or deeper meaning. After Ashtanga, it was easy to understand why yoga is so popular. Yoga creates a time of day to focus on one, singular thing and let all of the background from daily life fade away. While I practice yoga for fun and fitness, there is an invaluable meditative and mind-calming quality that comes with the practice. I became a 200 teaching hour certified Ashtanga-Vinyasa yoga instructor last year in Goa, India. 

In addition to the meditation aspect of yoga, another extremely practical benefit to practicing yoga is learning what your body is capable of. This is a humbling experience, one of the core Mentimeter values. Every single time I practice, I’m reminded that I or my body is not perfect. However, through acknowledging this imperfection, one can improve and strive to become better, maybe next week. Once one realizes that he or she is not perfect, it reduces the need to place judgements or prejudices on others, which facilitates transparent and open communication. Further, anyone with any body type can practice yoga, all it takes is some motivation (especially early on Fridays). The inclusiveness aspect of yoga is also appealing to me and is a core value of Mentimeter. 

Lastly, one of my favorite teachers always says, keep your balance or sense of humor because oftentimes, one of them is lost. As a teacher, I very much enjoy that even during a ‘serious’ practice people can laugh, have fun, and express themselves. Fridays are the ideal day for yoga at the office because afterwards the practitioners can enjoy the Menti-breakfast with the rest of the Menti-folks, hopefully a little more relaxed and focused for the day and weekend ahead. 

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