During the beginning of the school year, things can already be stressful for students. It’s not always due to the amount of schoolwork, but it can always have a mental health factor.
Adjusting to school schedules can be very difficult for some students.
English teacher Laura Taylor has been a yoga instructor for four years and uses techniques to keep herself focused on positive energy and a way to relieve herself from any stress she is facing.
“I’ve practiced yoga since I was a teenager and I never really thought of being a teacher, but in 2018 I went through some difficult things in my personal life, and yoga was my salvation.”
There are many different types of yoga exercises and each of them can help in certain areas of the body.
“I use something called Pranayama, which is a breathing technique. It’s a simple diaphragmatic breath, breathing into your belly which helps calm down your nervous system. It kicks in the parasympathetic nervous system which calms the body.”
There are also other techniques that Taylor mentioned that are also effective.
“I might use a Montra, like repeating, ‘I am’ and then whatever I need that day. I could also just do the actual Asana practice of yoga, which is the movement and paying attention to my breath and the movement.”
To practice these techniques, there are yoga classes you could sign up for, but if you find YouTube videos to be effective as well, that could be another option.
“Yoga with Adriene is the most popular YouTube channel out there. She’s really good and she has a lot of short videos and a whole series for beginners.”
Taylor uses the app Insight Timer which she uses frequently which may be helpful for beginners.
“There’s an app on my phone that I use called Insight Timer and it’s awesome. There are free yoga classes online from instructors all over the world and you can log in any time of the day. There’s also guided meditation there and meditation courses, so that’s a really great tool.”