Brightwater Yoga - Hendersonville, NC

Member Spotlight

Julius Hagymassy

I am excited about this month's Member Spotlight, as it is none other than Julius Hagymassy! I so vividly remember that Tuesday night when he walked in for the first time to my home studio, located at the time in the basement of our home, which has ceilings not even eight feet high. Immediately, I thought to myself how in the world is he, with his generous height, going to lift his arms over his head in Urdhva Hastasana (arms overheard while in Tadasana)? And poses like Virksasana (Tree Pose) and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) would be out of the question.

Meanwhile, Julius was thinking to himself (I learned while chatting with him in his beautiful home a few days ago), how he hoped this experience would far surpass the "Chick Yoga Class," as he describes it, he took 5 years prior in Cedar Rapids, Iowa before moving here. That class turned out to be much less desirable than he had hoped, but he was ready to give Yoga another whirl.

Interestingly enough, Julius was turned on to Yoga when he was 21 years old by a friend he met from Chicago, who was 20 years his senior, and very good at Yoga. Julius was curious and interested, and he even bought a paperback book which he studied for quite a while, teaching himself how to do difficult poses like Sirsasana (headstand) and Padmasana (Lotus).

He allowed his interest to wane, however, only performing these novel poses at parties for entertainment purposes, he laughed while describing. And today he wishes he had sought out a teacher while 21, but is grateful he gave Yoga a second chance that night. That was a little over 7 years ago, and today Julius' practice is a regular part of his daily life. Oh, and though he could never fully extend his arms over head at my home studio, he managed beautifully, somehow to perform Sun Salutations, Hand Stands and Tree Pose (although I did catch him a few times balancing with his fingers resting against the ceiling!).

Julius Hagymassy

Before sitting down to write this article, I had the great fortune to read a memoir written by Julius, "On Leaving Hungary." In addition to gaining insight about my friend, I learned so much about the history of Hungary and the emotions the thousands of Hungarians must have experienced during the October, 1956 Revolution when the Red Army invaded and overtook Hungary. I learned that, in less than three weeks, at the time of this take-over, more than 25,000 people (mostly civilians) were killed by the Red Army.

During and after that time, more than 200,000 Hungarians fled their country to seek freedom in the West. Julius, who was born in a small town in the Eastern part of Hungary, was 12 at this time and living in Budapest with his immediate family of four fled to Austria and then ended up in the US. His memoire is a very poignant account of his experience and for this American born, rather sheltered gal, it's almost impossible to comprehend the fear, grief, anger, and at times excitement this boy of 12 must have felt.

That experience, as I see it, in many ways defines who Julius is today...a brilliant, physically active & fit, competitive, sensitive, curious, diligent and all around fine human being. I feel honored and privileged to have met him through Yoga.

One of the main reasons Julius began practicing Yoga was to "cure" his sciatica, a condition he's convinced he acquired due to the years of stress he endured working as a Chemist and Manager of Chemists for Dow Chemical Company for 28 years. "It was a high stress position to be in, bridging the gap between technology and business, but that's what I was good at," admitted Julius reminiscing about that time in his life.

Julius received a PhD in Chemistry from Clarkson College of Technology but he says he's always had a propensity for business. Soon after graduating he went to work for Dow as a Chemist in research and quickly discovered, as did his employers, that his strengths were not in research, but in the business management sect. Though Yoga has not actually cured his sciatica, it has made his condition bearable as he lives a very active life today.

In addition to practicing Yoga at Brightwater, Julius has a very strong and consistent home practice; or he did, that is, until he adopted his newest family member, Lenke, a beautiful, two year old Hungarian hunting dog, that Julius walks three times a day at least two miles each walk. He told me he walked her over 150 miles in the month of May alone!

All those walks inspired Julius to re-create his home practice focusing primarily on "His Yoga Walk." "While walking I try to focus on my posture, keeping my chest lifted, my shoulders back and down and the proper tilt of my pelvis," he explained, "it's basically hours and hours of Tadansana!" When he is still able to practice Yoga at his home, a typical practice might consist of 30 Sun Salutations (his home ceilings are much higher than my basement ceiling!) sprinkled with standing poses or a Karate warm-up exercises, push-ups and sit-ups (numbering 120 of each - sets of 40) accompanied by selected seated poses, arm balances and inversions.

Ideally, he practices at home three to four times per week and attends classes two to three times per week. He says he's notably disappointed when he neglects his home practice due to spending so much time walking Lenke.

Yoga comes naturally to Julius, as is obvious as he flows into an effortless Lotus pose at the very beginning of class as we begin our practice. "I can't imagine not doing it!" he confided. "A highlight for me is achieving a posture I've been trying to achieve, or a step on the way to achieving a posture I have been trying to achieve, especially during a home practice!

This just happened the other day when I actually did Astavakrasana (an advanced arm balance). It was almost a semi-spiritual experience and I thought to myself, there may be more to this." When I asked him about the spiritual side of Yoga for him, I loved his answer: "I'm fixing to get ready to think about it. The physical part of Yoga eventually leads you to it." Julius says he's not going to dive into it, but as some point he may even pursue teaching Yoga which would definitely require more than just treading in the spiritual waters of the eightfold path.

For now, Julius is content to continue growing in his ability to execute postures, realizing that someday his practice may be about maintaining rather than growing. He appreciates the friendships he has found through Yoga, and loves that he's gotten to a place that he can even guess what mine or Shauna's "next move" might be when teaching our classes.

He lightens up every class he's in with his sarcastic comments and is always happy to help or coach a mat mate along while in class. Julius keeps chivalry alive as he sets out my blankets for me each class he attends and helps others obtain or put away their props. Julius is a treasure, who's light shines so brightly from within to everyone he encounters. I'm so grateful he decided to give Yoga another whirl!!!