While some people might find contentment in running or basketball, French teacher Nicholas Manjoine prefers to build physical and mental strength through yoga.

Manjoine was first introduced to yoga ten years ago when English teacher Marc Hufnagl offered informal yoga classes to faculty once a week. While familiarizing himself with the practice, he also began to attend classes outside, where he met Denise Wendler, also a yoga instructor at Harker.

“I had wanted to do yoga for a long time, but, like starting anything new, it just didn’t happen for one reason or another,” Manjoine said. “After those couple of experiences, I started going to different studios and experiencing different kinds of yoga.”

While Manjoine initially tried Hatha yoga and Ashtanga yoga, two common styles, he now mostly practices Iyengar yoga, a form of Hatha yoga established in the 70’s that focuses on posture and breathing. Iyengar yoga is also the style that Manjoine primarily teaches.

After taking a teacher training course at the Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville, Manjoine started the Upper School yoga program in 2006. He has also taught at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment and the Northside Community Center, both in San Jose.

“You never really stop taking yoga classes once you start,” he said. “Even though I was teaching a couple times a week for P.E. credit, I was still going to classes and workshops and continuing my own practice at home.”

Manjoine explained how yoga had helped him calm his mind and find equilibrium, quoting a passage from the foundational Yoga Sutras, written in the 2nd century BCE: “Yoga is the sensation of patterns in the mind.”

“Because of my upbringing and my biochemistry, I have a very active, fast-moving, sometimes neurotic mind,” he said. “Yoga’s really helpful to temper that.”

He also credits yoga with alleviating chronic pains linked to his temperament.

“I’d have physical pain, like chronic tension in my shoulder and pain in my hip. Those were where I’d sort of store up my neurotic energy,” he said. “Once I started doing yoga, I wasn’t in physical pain anymore.”

When teaching yoga at school, Manjoine tries to convey to his students the same sense of acceptance that he has found in his practice.

“One of the things I’m trying to instill in students constantly is: ‘be in the moment, focus on your breath, don’t be judgmental about yourself—just be who you are,’” he said. “I think it’s a basic message that students get through advisors and counselors and the LIFE program, but [yoga is] a way to physically feel it and mentally experience it.”

Manjoine currently teaches on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school.