Keep calm and GDC on with these wellness classes

The Game Developers Conference is five days of incredible sessions, talks, networking opportunities, and events. It may be a lot of fun, but sometimes it's good to take a breather! That's why GDC 2022 is happy to provide yoga, meditation, and other wellness opportunities for our attendees.

GDC 2022 is once again teaming up with Lodo Massage and WITHIN Meditation for yoga classes and meditation sessions. They're designed to help with focus, body awareness, and personal motivation. Everything you need to ensure a relaxed and mindful time at GDC!

These free sessions are available virtually for all GDC attendees through Swapcard, to ensure privacy and safety. That way you can participate in them anywhere, anytime, at your convenience.

Here are the Lodo Massage yoga classes available:

Posture Realignment—Postural alignment is the composite of the positions of all the joints and limbs of the body at any given moment. Optimal postural alignment is a prerequisite for optimal movement function. Most of us do not have optimal postural alignment because of years of bad habits, injury or health issues. In this class we will focus on loosening up your muscles, body awareness and core strength to help you understand how to realign your body.

Headache Relief—Tight muscles surrounding the neck press on nerves that refer pain to another location, in this case, the head. Stress can cause headaches due to prolonged contraction of these muscles. For example, you may notice that you tense up and shrug your shoulders when stressed. Likewise, poor posture can play a role as prolonged poor positioning can alter mechanics and cause muscular imbalances. Stretching can help reduce muscle tightness and tension in the head, neck, and shoulders.

Sciatic Release—Sciatic nerve pain is one of the most common causes for which people seek medical attention. Sciatica is a condition that involves the compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve, causing a mild ache or sharp pain to radiate from the spine down through the back of the leg. In this workshop, you will be guided through stretches that will help to loosen up muscle tension in your low back and hips to help release the pain associated with sciatica.

Here are the WITHIN Meditation sessions you can attend:

Deepen the Breath Meditation—This session will guide you through a mindfulness practice focused on your breath. The intention of class is to cultivate more calm, ease and relaxation. You will leave the session feeling more connected to your breath, and with techniques to use your breath as an anchor throughout the rest of your week.

Meet Your Motivation—Discover how being mindful can help you stay motivated! When we’re fully present we can move forward with clarity and purpose, choosing the action in every moment that best serves our goals. This session uses gentle breathwork to reset the nervous system to a place of calm, and then uses the power of visualization to tap into your motivation.

Make Space for Inspiration—When we are desiring innovation and inspiration, we must first make space to receive it. Just like a camera lens that is zoomed all the way in on one image cannot perceive anything beyond it, when we zoom out from tight focus on thoughts we open up space to perceive the entire picture, with new and fresh perspective.

In addition, if you're joining us at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, GDC has a quiet room on-site for attendees to decompress. You'll find it in Room 312 (South Hall). There are also private lactation rooms available for nursing parents.

As you're working on networking, contract development, or other opportunities, make sure to take some time for you. It's not only good for your body and mind... it's great for business.

GDC is happening in San Francisco, March 21-25—registration is still open! For more information on GDC 2022, including our virtual options, be sure to visit our website and follow the #GDC22 hashtag on social media.

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