If you were ever under the impression that yoga is an exclusive club made up of hippies and wealthy, tan women, you might want to take a deeper look. Yoga can offer health benefits to just about everyone who is willing to try it.
De Anza College students are no strangers to stress. Though yoga courses fulfill general education requirements, many students take yoga because of how it makes them feel.
“I find it to be really relaxing… especially through the end of the week,” said business administration major Katie Vaughn, 20. “It’s a really great way to relieve stress from homework and the weekdays.”
Vaughn’s perception of the benefits of yoga is not at all in her head.
Yoga is shown to release several feel-good chemicals in the brain such as serotonin and dopamine, offering those who practice yoga a better sense of ease.
“It’s definitely relaxing,” said Kirby Kiefer, 26, business science major.
Yoga’s benefits go beyond the sake of flexibility and relaxation.
Researchers at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health have found through MRI scans that yoga actually creates positive changes in the brain that have been seen and documented.
Additionally, yoga is shown to improve overall health in many forms including increased immune system function, improved circulation and decreased inflammation.
It is not uncommon for students to experience insomnia with looming tests and other assignments and responsibilities hanging over their head. De Anza student Leila Alves has found that yoga help to alleviate these college life symptoms.
“I wouldn’t sleep as well as the way I am sleeping now since [taking yoga]. It has been very beneficial to my sleep,” said Alves.
Fortunately for De Anza students, yoga classes are not difficult to find. They are actually offered every quarter. Not only do yoga classes fulfill a physical education requirement, they are a valuable tool in helping deal with the stress of earning a degree.
“What I have noticed and what a lot of students have come up to me and said is that [yoga] has helped them deal with the stress of school,” De Anza yoga instructor Kelly Simons shared. “As the quarter goes along, [the students] get better and better at yoga and meditation and it clearly helps them.”
Yoga is a skill anyone can learn and with increasing pressure on today’s college students, it is more than worth contemplating if not only for the proven stress-busting benefits alone.
