How Yoga Can Help Relieve The Stress That College Students

In today’s society, whenever someone posts things such as, pictures, videos, comments, etc. on the internet it can never be deleted or erased. Not ever will be expunged. Considering that the Lewinsky Scandal was in the late 1990’s, technology was on the brink of drastically changing the way people interacted with others. Just a few years prior to this specific event, news could only be broadcasted on limited outlets. “In 1998, after having been swept up into an improbable romance, I was then swept up into the eye of a political, legal and media maelstrom like we had never seen before. Remember, just a few years earlier, news was consumed from three places: reading a newspaper or a magazine, listening to the radio, or watching television. That was it. But that wasn’t my fate.

Regis College’s number one health concern is stress. The problem has come to be, due to the fact that students come from home, where their parents provided them with guidance, to a situation where they are independent. They have personal responsibility and it may not be completely straightforward for some people. Everyone’s experience is different, but each student experiences stress in some way. The competition for grades, the high expectations, relationships, future career choices, and several other aspects found in the college environment, can lead to stress. Going to college requires changes in daily routine. This includes sleeping adjustments, eating habits, time-management skills, balancing of relationships and several other changes.

The instructor of the yoga class was Amanda, who is a current student at Rowan University. Yoga is an exercise that enables people to relieve stress, balance emotions and relax and strengthen their muscles at the same time. Amanda had many different objectives that she wanted each participant to accomplish by the end of the yoga class. She wanted us to be able to relieve our stress and feel better about ourselves through a relaxed exercise. Not only does yoga relive stress, it also builds muscle strength and coordination.

Yoga is a discipline both involving physical and mental control that originated in India. The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word, "yug", meaning union and it means the joining of the individual spirit with the universal spirit. The type of yoga known as Hatha Yoga, ("Ha"- sun, "tha"-moon) is what is most commonly practiced and this yoga involves the path of the mind and body and is the most physical. There are eight limbs or steps of Hatha Yoga, the first step being the five Yamas. There are five yamas and these concern your behavior to the world.

Getting into university and becoming a college student used to be fun because of the friends and memories they would make. However, college life can be stressful now, especially for first-year students. What is stress? Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman defined stress as “ the result of an individuals’ perceptions that they do not have the resources to cope with a perceived situation from the past, present or future.” (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). In fact, stress is inevitable. Sometimes stress forces students to reach their goals and get their tasks done like studies and homework. But when stress is too much, it may stop students from working properly, and accomplishing things. College

Yoga is a comprehensive system of mind/body techniques that is thousands of years old. Its techniques are designed to improve physical and mental health and well being, and include such practices as physical postures and stretching, breathing exercises (pranayama), focused concentration, meditation, visualization, and chanting (mantra) (Desikachar, 1999; van der Kolk, 2014).

Yoga emerged over five thousand years ago, known as the pre classical era, and is believed to be developed by the Indus- Sarasvati civilization in Northern India; although some researchers believe Yoga is over ten thousand years old. The old sacred text, Rig Verda, is the oldest scripture that yoga has been found in. The Upanishads took the idea of ritual sacrifice from the Verdas, however they internalized it; this meaning to sacrifice the ego through self knowledge. In the post classical era yoga masters abandoned the ancient Verdas and embraced a new style that involved cleansing the mind and body; breaking the bond of our physical existence. This type of yoga is primarily thought of as Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga has been proven to help not

The yoga that most studios practice is derived from an ancient Indian practice that has roots in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. However, many yoga teachers disregard the religious aspect of yoga and focus more on the self-discipline and physical aspects of the exercise. Yoga usually is practiced in a Dojo styled setting, with relaxing background music in comfortable clothing and on Yoga mats. It is used to focus oneself, as well as to build strength and self discipline.

With managing stress and time management, one’s perceived stress can improve significantly. This source suggests that first and second year college and medical students should adapt meditation and coping strategies for stress and anxiety to promote an overall healthy lifestyle. I will use this article to support the claim that all college students need some type of effective personal relaxation strategy aside from academics to reduce their overall stress from school and to have effective stress and time management

Yoga has been associated with stress. The larger the amount of stress a person has, the less likely that person is to feel in control of themselves and their surroundings. Yoga has also been linked to a person’s health and wellbeing. During a one week experiment, a researcher did yoga once a day at 7:00 pm for a half hour. A survey was taken twice, in hour intervals, after the yoga session was completed, at 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm. The surveys are what was used to find the data that created the results of the experiment. One type of yoga, integrated yoga, was used throughout the week. The results concluded yoga helps relieve stress for one hour after the session was completed, but was stressed again shortly after that hour was finished. Different styles of yoga classes could be offered and more times could be made available at the Elmen Center. Yoga is currently offered at 4:30 pm in the Back Alley, but more class times could be 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm. Different styles include hot yoga, iyengar yoga, or hatha yoga. To improve evaluations, a person could add questions about their level of stress before and after the yoga class. These improvements will allow researchers to see if the results are true for the majority of people.

Stress is common among many Americans; however, stress among college students is reported to be much higher. Many college students may not practice healthy habits to lower their stress levels. A known method to lower stress is meditation. Meditation is not a common g practice among college students. If college students began to practice meditation then their stress levels would likely lower. This experiment is to test if their are positive effects to those who practice meditation. Fifty colleges will practice mediation and we will see if this practice lowers their stress and

The origins of yoga date back to India over 5,000 years ago. The Vedas, holy writings that are the foundation for Hinduism, possess ancient yoga teachings known as Vedic Yoga. Individuals became reliant on Vedic yoga to live their life in divine harmony.

Over the years many studies have been conducted to determine what creates stress and how college students can cope with stress. Stressors in a student’s life can be created through personal, educational and social experiences. A student faces many experiences while transitioning from high school, to college, and into adulthood. These experiences include: living arrangements, personal finances, important career decisions, experiences of failure, interpersonal relationships, and personal finances. These stressors involved with daily hassles can create an unhealthy high pressure environment which makes stress for college students inevitable. During one study, researchers found that physical activity throughout a student’s life can increase one’s stress tolerance and positively cope with stressors (Bland, Melton, Bigham, & Welle, 2012).

Yoga is a practical aid, not a religion. Yoga is an ancient art based on a harmonizing system of development for the body, mind, and spirit. The continued practice of yoga will lead you to a sense of peace and well-being, and also a feeling of being at one with their environment. This is a simple definition.

The practice of Yoga dates back to thousands of years ago and is believed to have been introduced to the world by a person who was known as Adiyogi. Adiyogi, more famously know as Lord Shiva himself, was first seen in upper parts of the Himalayas, where he was seen in a mystic self-transcendence. Seeing him in this state seven seekers sought to be his disciples and learn the practice of Yoga that would lead them to this transcendence too. Adiyogi accepted these seven people as his disciples and became the first guru ever known to mankind, Aadi Guru. The seven discliples learned and practiced Yoga from the Aadi Guru and then set to travel to different parts of the world to impart their learning.