SALISBURY — To better motivate residents to move around and get out of their comfort zone, the city Salisbury, in partnership with the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention and SoFul Yoga and Wellness at Railwalk, held their spring “Move with the Mayor” event on May 29 at Bell Tower Green with a free yoga class open to the public. 

Communications Coordinator Kaisha Brown said “Move with the Mayor” is a National Forum initiative that occurs all over the country and Salisbury does its best to make theirs stand out amongst the rest. 

“We participate, but we put our own spin on it to make it mayor and Salisbury City Council. It encourages active lifestyle, healthy living and bringing the community together for physical fitness through different activities,” Brown said. 

Salisbury has organized “Move with the Mayor” biannually for the past few years, but this is the first time they have offered yoga as the main type of exercise. 

Mayor Karen Alexander said she doesn’t do yoga too often except when she’s on vacation, but “Move with the Mayor” inspired her to try and do it more. 

“I just loved it and I was so excited that it was so diverse. We had men here, all different ages and everything. It was great,” Alexander said.

Alexander thought the timing of the yoga class could not have been better considering May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

“I think it is important that while we are worried about our physical health, our mental health is very important, too. If we can learn some techniques of breathing that releases stress, that’s good,” Alexander said.

Bev Maley, a yoga instructor at SoFul Yoga and Wellness at Railwalk, was in charge of leading those who attended through a relaxing journey. Maley has been doing yoga for the past 25 to 30 years and she’s experienced enough to know how each of her classes will go based on who’s there with her. 

“I often teach to what I see, so when I start out I see how people move. I noticed two people who had a shoulder injury, I noticed somebody with a hip issue, somebody else had a leg thing, somebody else told me they had something. I kept that all in mind when I made our movements so that I could make movements that were comfortable for everybody,” Maley said.

Robin Saine said she practices yoga often and she seemed to enjoy the pace and casual feel at “Move with the Mayor.”

“I thought it was amazing. It was gentler than some of the other classes that I’ve taken in the past and it was fantastic,” Saine said.