Amid the endless rush from class to class, looming piles of homework and demanding activities outside school, it’s easy for students to forget to take time for themselves. In response to this problem, McLean’s new Yoga Mindfulness training seeks to help students de-stress. It is available to the entire student body on Fridays during Highlander Time in the dance room. No appointment is necessary, and a student does not have to have experience with yoga to attend.
“The primary goal of the Yoga and Mindfulness Program is to improve self-care, enhance learning and renew resilience,” founder and executive director of Yoga Education for Schools Lisa Danahy said. “We strive to provide students with practical and applicable skills for a lifetime of healthier living.”
Before the program was implemented as a Friday feature available to all students, the Yoga and Mindfulness was conducted in freshman and sophomore physical education classes during the first semester this school year.
Students learned an effective way to breathe while exercising, then were led through warm-ups, yoga poses, mindfulness training and a cool down routine. In a post-class survey, 86% of students said they felt calmer than they did when they walked in, and 77% of students said they felt they could use what they learned to regulate their stress in the future.
“If I’m stressed about an upcoming test, I can do some yoga for a while to relieve stress. Also, since they offer yoga during Highlander Time [on Fridays], that can be a good opportunity for me to relieve stress if there is a test that day,” freshman Lora Zhou said.
Zhou was among the majority of students who felt the Yoga and Mindfulness Program had helped her feel less stressed.
“The goal of the class is to provide a place in the school where students can relax, recenter and refocus,” school psychologist Beth Werfel said.
A 2015 publication by INA Wellness cited yoga as being able to curb negative emotions, increase focus and concentration, reduce stress and improve the quality and duration of sleep. The Friday yoga classes hope to offer these benefits to students.
“These classes provide students an opportunity to experience learning in a non-competitive, non-judgmental environment. Students learn techniques to relieve tension in the body, calm the mind, and let go of expectations and performance pressures,” Danahy said. “They also practice a variety of techniques to develop self-awareness which teaches them to observe thoughts, feelings and sensations with increased calm and clarity.”
Zhou believes it is worth students’ time to try the yoga sessions on Fridays.
“A lot of high schoolers think that yoga isn’t really an appealing activity because it doesn’t involve a lot of action,” Zhou said. “However, I think that because it doesn’t involve so much action, it is very beneficial to clearing the mind and energizing the body. As a result, it helps curb the very thing that plagues high schoolers, which is stress.”
