FROM STUDENT TO TEACHER

Husch stops reminiscing to explain more about yoga. “There are seven different branches of yoga, each with a different emphasis. Yoga is not a religion. It is the union of body, mind and spirit. The yoga greeting, ‘Namaste,’ simply means, ‘The essence of me greets the essence of you.’”

Yoga changes people, Husch says. “For one thing, when you practice yoga, you pay attention to what you are doing right that minute, and that rests the mind from the many distractions and concerns in life.” She pauses and laughs. “Whenever I feel myself getting frustrated, I go into my yoga mode, and I feel a sense of calm. I really value that.”

Husch took yoga classes for a couple of years after her son died and then decided to teach yoga. She called St. Louis Community College at Forest Park and was given the opportunity. “Yoga got really big for me,” she says. “And teaching made me feel useful again.”

Husch had previous teaching experience. For a time, she taught health classes at University City High School and served as a sex education specialist for the Girl Scouts. Husch also worked with other teachers to help them feel more comfortable talking in their classrooms about sex. And from the time her children were young, Husch taught them to respect and take care of the planet, and the plants and animals on it.

THREE MAIN THEMES

Today, Husch teaches three private yoga classes each week. In her classes, Husch emphasizes three things: Preventive care (specifically, how to strengthen and protect your back), deep breathing and relaxation. “Doing the asanas is fine, but these are my main three themes,” Husch says.

She believes that students of yoga do best when they take part in a class. “I don’t believe in buying a yoga tape and doing the same thing over and over.” She also discourages students from trying to learn yoga from a book, though she praises one book in particular — Judith Hanson Lasater’s “Relax and Renew: Restful Yoga for Stressful Times” (Rodmell Press, 240 pages, $21.95).

Beginning in 1991, Husch experienced another period of extremely stressful times. Her husband of 50 years was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died soon after. The following year, another of Husch’s sons died at the age of 48. Then her sister Peggy died, after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Husch stopped teaching yoga.

“Once again, I just pulled a shell around me,” Husch says. To help Husch recover, her daughter Joan, a medical doctor, planned a family reunion that included all the grandchildren. (Currently, Husch has 16.) “That time, love pulled me back,” Husch says. “And after a while, I also went back to yoga, and then began teaching again.”

Every morning and every evening, Husch stretches her body. She also frequently stops what she is doing in the course of the day, and practices yoga breathing, the deep breathing that begins in the belly, then expands the rib cage and next inflates the lungs fully.

“We need to use our entire breathing mechanism,” she says. “It’s a good idea to attach the practice to something you do several times a day, like walking through the door or picking up the phone or sitting down to eat. Proper breathing is good for you. Besides, it helps in sports, helps in singing and helps in playing a musical instrument.”

As Husch sees it, yoga increases flexibility, heightens awareness and improves general health. “I’m 87 and I’m in pretty good health,” she says, beaming. “Two years ago, a massage therapist found something on my calf that turned out to be a malignant melanoma, but the doctor got it all. I also have a slow-growing, benign lymphoma, but I’m not worried about that.”

When asked why not, Husch replies, “I have learned not to worry. My mother worried about everything, and I remember as a girl thinking that was a horrible way to go through life. But it also comes from practicing yoga with yoga mats.
Husch credits yoga for her energy, her peace of mind and even her longevity. Ann Husch, 87, has buried two of her five children, her husband and a beloved sister, and she has faced two different kinds of cancer — yet her warm smile and quick wit reveal no trace of suffering.

“To me, yoga is a tool for living, like gardening or playing music or taking up art,” says Husch, a native St. Louisan. “There are many ways we can go, but yoga is my life. It is that valuable to me.”

In 1963, Husch’s 15-year-old son David was killed in a biking accident. “I could not go on,” Husch says. “It was so devastating, and I did not know how to grieve. I had four other children, but I acted as though my life were over.”

Husch saw a psychologist and received much advice from friends, but nothing helped. Then one day, her sister Peggy brought Husch a magazine article that said practicing yoga helps you sleep.

“I didn’t know what yoga was. I thought it had something to do with walking on nails,” she recalls, laughing. “I went to a couple of yoga classes. Suddenly I realized this was helping.”

Arvilla Droll, the woman widely credited with bringing yoga to St. Louis, was the instructor for the class Husch took, which was held at the old Hanley Junior High School. Kitty Daly, now a co-owner of Big Bend Yoga, demonstrated some of the yoga asanas, or postures, for Droll.

“Arvilla was in an auto accident and was told she would never walk again,” Husch recalls. “She not only walked — she went on to teach yoga and fencing. Hearing that planted a little seed of doubt in my mind. I started thinking that maybe medical people don’t really know everything.”