Destress with Yoga

With a tattered bag slung over her shoulder, Wanni Zhou strides across the gym. She finds her familiar corner and crouches to unroll the plush mat from her hands. Rising to her feet, she rests her hands on her sides and gives a tight twist of her hips and neck, relaying to her brain she is ready.

Whether kicking oneself for procrastinating on a 10-page paper due the next day, or in Zhou’s case, applying to graduate schools, college students must deal with persistent anxieties.

Fifteen million Americans practiced yoga in 2002, according to a Harris Interactive poll. By 2011 that number neared 17 million. Though not a cure for cancer, yoga benefits reach a diverse population and can help to alleviate a variety of lifestyle issues, especially for college students.

Persistent Stress

Nestled in a college town, Vibe Yoga Studio in Bloomington, Ind., receives a good portion of its clientele from students. Studio Manager Erin Thomas explains the activity’s popularity in distracting from the daily grind.

“Yoga benefits all ages and abilities,” Thomas said. “It serves different peoples’ needs, especially for college-aged students who have the stresses of school, work, figuring out the next step in life, internships…It’s good to step away, get into the studio, and not pay attention to anyone else.”

Vibe Yoga Studio offers a free trial class before the option to pay per bundle of classes (10 for $110, 20 for $200) or per month ($150 or $105 with automatic-renewal membership).

Occupying the vacant room in her house in Texas, Jenna Kenny queues up an online video and light background music, sprawls out in the center of the room, and contorts her body to her heart’s content. As a sophomore at Baylor University who has sporadically partaken in yoga for two years, Kenny has found that this isolated atmosphere serves as the best atmosphere for practicing yoga.

“It’s a lot easier for me to relax from doing yoga than by going to social events because sometimes those can even add to your stress,” she said. “Yoga is a nice way to relax and forget about tests, assignments or crazy teachers.”

After committing to yoga at least once a week, she has noticed that she retains a better mood even after receiving bad test grades or encountering a dramatic conversation with friends.

“I think it's great for college students to just be in their own zone for a few times a week,” Kenny said. “If you play ocean or nature sounds in the background it can be like a mini vacation for 40 minutes.”

According to Thomas, constructing a wall between distraction and one’s safe place all comes down to breath work.

“It’s not just about the physical benefits, but it’s at a deeper level,” she said. “A number of studies show that yoga leads to higher brain waves, slows down thoughts and helps you concentrate. It’s really an internal place, so if you’re sitting down to study or write a paper, it is completely helpful in focusing.”

With her mother going through the motions alongside her, Indiana University freshman Karina Cardella uses yoga to help her feel in control.

“It’s a good thing to do to relieve stress from too much school work,” she said. “Afterwards I really do feel less overwhelmed and swamped.”

Maria Theresia, or M.T., of Maria Theresia’s Yoga Therapy does not believe in “stress.” Located out of Houston, Texas, the 73-year-old instructor brings the power of yoga to unexpected participants. Nurses and physicians flock to M.T.’s sessions after 48-hour shifts. Engineers and professors join the pack, as do members of various corporations, prisons, churches and clubs.

“Years ago we didn’t know stress, we just knew challenges,” M.T. said. “I think that word is overly used; people hang on to it, saying everything is stress, but I don’t think so. When we have challenges, this is life and we evolve; we learn because otherwise we want everything to come easily but then nothing would happen in life. When we change our attitude and we do yoga, we address stress, tension and health.”

She agrees with Thomas that breathing is essential in yoga. Through her studies, M.T. realized the brain provides the ultimate control.

“If you can have a better attitude, you can become more peaceful and relaxed and go back to work or school or have a test and actually handle things a lot better,” M.T. said.

She offers her DVDs for $23 and other yoga therapy technique CDs and videos for under $20.

Some look beyond their television or computer screens. Most college students choose to sweat through heated power classes or persevere through the extra energy boost classes, Thomas said.

“There are so many styles with yoga that you can get benefits across the board,” Thomas said.

She said yoga’s success has been a testament to the thousands of years it has been around, and the outlook for the future is bright.

“The great thing about being in a college town is that in four years we’ll have a whole new group of college students,” Thomas said.

Studying Stiffness

Whether straining your calves while power walking across campus in 15 minutes for your next class, enduring an hour-and-15-minute lecture crammed in between two other students, or sleeping in an uncomfortable chair on top of your homework assignment at 4 in the morning, college students often find themselves in compromising positions.

“With yoga, students that sit all day or use their hips and hamstring muscles are often able to flesh that out without the impact of a cardio workout,” Thomas said.

As someone who spends her free time strapped in harnesses and pulling herself up a mountainside, Zhou acknowledged that rock climbing is hard on her body and she said yoga helps to correct the physical ailments that may result.

In response to an article in the Wall Street Journal that tells of potential dangers related to yoga, M.T. dismissed the negativity aimed at yoga practices. The fine line between benefit and harm stands in your awareness of your body’s abilities, she said.

“I teach classical, therapeutic yoga,” M.T. shared. “My students are told, ‘Listen to your body and do what you can; do not force anything.’”

She acknowledged that Western yoga is more exercise-oriented.

“It looks pretty intimidating sometimes,” M.T. said. “We do stretching, exercising, balancing, strength and flexibility. The brain is king of the body. If your brain isn’t in order, the physical equipment can’t be either.”

Unhealthy Living

Can’t lay off the second helping of dessert at the dining hall? Or worse, can’t find time to put down the books to hit the gym? Although it is not thought to be as intense as a cardio workout, yoga can provide surprising results.

“For less active people, it’s so relaxing you don’t realize you’re working your arms and core until the next day you wake up sore,” Cardella said.

Bikram yoga, a type of yoga that takes place in a heated room and includes a series of 26 postures, throws a curve to participants in Bloomington, Thomas said.

“It’s actually a detoxifying practice,” Cardella said. “At IU, around Little 5 and those college drinking weekends, you don’t have to work out to the point where you are sick of it. Just turn the heat on here and it helps detoxify.”

M.T. found yoga has been a wonderful tool to reach her age in such good shape.

“I try to tell young people aging does not start when you’re 60 and 70 or even 40 and 50; it starts after that,” she said. “We keep going, we grow, we do things, and in terms of how we take care of our body, thinking is supreme. It is of the utmost importance.”

As depression pops up left and right, M.T. says yoga can help manage moods.

“I tell young people to take field trips to the nursing home,” M.T. said. “Who wants to live like that? That’s not life. I’m 73; people look at me and can’t believe it. I’ve taken care of myself, I eat right, I think right; if I see my thoughts go into a negative idea, I stop myself.”

Teaching a pose goes beyond calling out an action and waiting for the class to repeat it. M.T. challenges her students to ask themselves specifically what they are working on internally—whether it’s awareness, breathing, or the physical, mental or emotional benefits.

“People are intelligent,” she said. “They need to know why they are doing it. I love what I’m doing so it’s really a beautiful thing and it’s good for our brain and our mind.”

Kenny encourages fellow students to persevere through the discomfort and put effort into the pastime.

“If you take a class and it doesn’t work, keep exploring,” Thomas said. “I really think there’s a teacher or class out there for everyone.”