Is there a cure to stress and the common cold? When students of Laurie Bonjo, operator of the Harmony Center Yoga and Body Arts, 103 E. Beaver Ave., come to her with different ailments, she can diagnose them using her knowledge of nursing. She then can create a sequence of yoga positions to ease symptoms of everything from stress to sinus congestion.

"Basically I believe there is a yoga practice for everyone," Bonjo said. "It can improve every aspect of life. And should be accessed by more of the public."

Self Taught

During her high school years Bonjo learned her first yoga positions from her mother, an avid practitioner. Faced with respiratory illnesses in her teens, Bonjo's mother taught her positions, which helped to clear up her symptoms.

Upon entering the University of Pennsylvania, yoga faded into the background of Bonjo's life until one late night studying session.

"In college I bit of more than I could chew. I was at an Ivy League school with a dual major and two jobs," Bonjo said. "One night at 2 a.m., I was trying to study for a test and the page kept blurring. I took a break and did every yoga pose I could remember. Suddenly the page made sense. I was much more focused and had the energy to continue studying."

The next morning she woke up clear-headed and ready to take the test, scoring much higher than anticipated. She vowed to continue her yoga practice as a way to deal with the stress of college.

"Once I moved to the [State College] area, I continued with yoga. I found it helped me deal physically with the stress of pregnancy and the mental stress of moving," Bonjo said. "Eventually my friend encouraged me to take a class."

Bonjo attended her first yoga class after years of self-instruction. It was her experience in class that led her to teach. A former president of the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States (IYNAUS) taught Bonjo's first class.

"He was an amazing instructor but the austerity of the classroom inhibited me," Bonjo said. "My relationship with yoga is more freeing."

An opportunity to teach yoga with the Continuing and Distance Education on campus became available. She found it a good opportunity to share what she knew with others and develop her own "self-involved, non-competitive" teaching environment that people find their confidence increase as they accomplish each challenge," Bonjo said. "The university environment is based on competition. I provide something off campus that helps [clients] deal with stress on campus."

Bonjo knows each student's level of experience as well as individual physical abilities. By remembering those details, she can shape her class around her students, which in turn makes the classes very individual and personalized.

Cori Luppino (grad student - human development and family studies) has been a student instructor at Harmony Center for five to six months, teaching about six classes each month. She has studied yoga for many years and taken classes in Boston and New York City before finding Bonjo.

"We are incredibly fortunate to have some one like her here in State College," Luppino said. "She offers a really unique atmosphere."

Luppino found Bonjo though one of the summer Continuing and Distance Education classes offered at Penn State.

"It was not soon enough. I had been here for a year and really bummed out that I couldn't find a class," Luppino said. "Since then I have turned on so many of my friends to her teaching. Her classes make life as a graduate student less stressful."

Bonjo brings in many sources to her own understanding of yoga.

"I travel as much as I can to take classes with internationally known instructors in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C. and Reading," Bonjo said. "When I take classes I watch what the teacher does. Like any good professional, I learn from others."

Bonjo's dedication to her practice is felt by her students.

"You leave there feeling relaxed and confident that you are making progress and really loving what you are doing, instead of worrying about your abilities," Luppino said. "She makes everyone feel really good about where they are."

While still teaching on campus, Bonjo began to cover classes and then teach at a downtown yoga studio before looking for her own space.

"I remember that her classes were always filled, there was always a lot of interest," said Stephanie Gush, who worked with Bonjo during her time teaching Continuing and Distance Education classes. Gush is a coordinator at Center for Arts and Crafts. "[Bonjo] worked for us for about five years before leaving to start her business. We were sorry to see her go."

Bonjo spent six months looking for a rental space.

"It was extremely difficult [to find a rental] in the downtown area," Bonjo said. "I'm not sure if it was because people were skeptical about the stability of a yoga instructor or because I'm a woman or possibly my tattoos."

Classes began as soon as possible once she found a location. She arrived home after a yoga seminar in San Francisco on March 17, 2002, and picked up the key to her studio. The next day, a wall was knocked down to create a suitable classroom. And on March 19, the first yoga class at Harmony Center was held with wires hanging and plaster falling.

"I felt as if I was starting a family production, students were bringing in air conditioners and paintings," Bonjo said.

Hard Core

As the operator of Harmony Center, Bonjo said her job is threefold: the entrepreneur looking for ways to provide business growth, the manager who sets the schedule and the technician sitting on her mat figuring out what positions to teach in upcoming classes.

"Some may think I'm just have a good time teaching and that's it. But at home I'm doing taxes, worrying about the amount of foot traffic that month and paying the phone, the insurance and so on," Bonjo said. "Yet I love the freedom of having my own business and that feeling of independence as a women. I'm not doing this for an end result just to be here everyday."

She finds the hardest part of her business to be paying the rent each month. Her clients vary from semester to semester. On average she has about 50 to 70 clients varying from professors to graduate students, with a few undergraduates mixed in.

"I have probably taught 30 percent of the yoga practicing population in State College," Bonjo said. "I find some do it for a while and then phase out and come back months later."

Bonjo has realized her clients depend on "hard core" practitioners like herself and her staff to always be there to come back to.

"It is crazy how many people I know in town," Bonjo said. "I feel such a community presence and it's not even my hometown."

Besides running her own business, Bonjo home schools her two children, Eden, 9, and Forrest, 12. As part of their physical education curriculum, the two children practice yoga. Since most of her yoga instruction is at night, Bonjo schools her children during the day.

"We have a system between the three of us," Bonjo said. "They totally dig it, getting up when they want and then attending to their responsibilities."

Yoga has been a staple in every factor of Bonjo's life and she feels it is an important factor in the evolvement of self-esteem and personal growth through out life.

"Especially for women, it is so important for females to see themselves a strong people as they go day to day engaging in the world," Bonjo said.

She said she provides a challenging yet non-competitive environment, which allows increased opportunity for self-realization.