One thing you’re missing out on campus – yoga glasses

OK, admit it, the first thing that (still) comes to your mind when you think about yoga is the image of a person turned into a pretzel, right? Time to say goodbye to these misconceptions and give yoga classes on your campus a try. Why?

First, yoga is all about connecting the body, mind and breathing to bring balance to a person as a whole. To make things clear, there are several types of yoga, so you don’t need to rule the idea out for fear you won’t be able to twist and turn. The form of yoga most commonly practiced across North America is hatha yoga, which focuses on breathing and physical exercises (or postures). Yoga classes help you:

- Manage stress. It’s been shown that yoga is a major stress reliever, so instead of reaching for a bag of chips or turning on the TV when you’re overwhelmed with the tasks of student life, try meditation and a couple of asanas (yoga postures) to wind down.

- Be more flexible. Yoga makes your body more agile and increases your mobility. In addition, it helps your performance in other types of exercise, such as running.

- Manage chronic health conditions. According to the University of Maryland, insomnia, anxiety, fatigue, back pains, high blood pressure and moods swings are only a few of the conditions that yoga helps alleviate. We don’t know about you, but insomnia, anxiety and fatigue are definitely student life-related in our books.

Advice: Some asana postures are quite demanding, so it’s recommended to see a doctor first to make sure you can try out some of these complicated moves – another reason why on-campus classes are great because instructors know what they’re doing and can help make sure you’re doing everything safely and properly.

What other campus ‘secrets’ do you know and want to share?