Doctor will teach yoga principles on local TV program

Posted: August 29, 1997  Author: Dr. Moss

Originally published in The Dubois County Herald
By Candy Neal, Staff Writer

JASPER - Dr. Richard Moss will demonstrate yoga techniques this fall on the local television station.

Starting Sept. 17, "Yoga For Health with Dr. Richard Moss" will air at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays on WJTS-TV, Channel 27.

Moss wanted to add another dimension to his self-taught discipline.

"I've been doing yoga for years," he said. "I needed a change. We (all, as a society) like to diversify and do different things."

Moss is the host of the half-hour show, although he's never had an acting lesson. "I sort of winged it," he said.

But he has plenty of experience with yoga. "My mother taught me yoga when I was five," he said. "I started doing it on my own as a teen."

He's lived in Asia for 3 years, and spent time in a Buddhist monastery as a monk. He also went to yoga ashrams in India:

"Mainly it's been my own individual practice," he said. "It's been mainly self-taught."

Back in the states. Moss lived in yoga ashrams for seven years in Bloomington, Indianapolis and the

Catskill Mountains in New York.

Locally, he has taught yoga classes at Health Pointe, in Jasper, in the fall, winter and spring. "You're always learning, especially when you start teaching," he said.

Moss also incorporates yoga principles, indirectly, in his practice. "Much of what we see in medicine is stress-related," he said. "I can advise the patients, using the yoga principles, on how to deal with the stress."

Yoga uses techniques of postures, called asanas; breathing techniques, called prana yama; and meditation to create energy, calm and relaxation.

"With time, the student of yoga develops greater control of the mind and body, develops greater spiritual insight, will become more," Moss said. "The body will become stronger, more supple and have greater stamina, and the mind becomes more calm, alert and vital."

He and station owner Paul Knies have been talking about the program idea for the past year and a half.

"It was my idea and I got in touch with him," Moss said. "We've been going at it, talking and working on schedules for that long. We finally got around to it."

With program director Jason Nord, Moss has pre-recorded six episodes so far, and plans to tape two more this weekend.

He plans to have a show for "seasoned citizens" and will be assisted by a senior who's been doing yoga with him for about six months. Another show will be geared toward children, and feature Moss's 5-year-old daughter. Ariel. The last two will be done at his house, he said.

Moss said he's not sure about the future, after the initial 13 shows for the fall season, but "hopefully. if the show is well received, we will do it all the time."