I’ve always found that college produces extremely high levels of stress in me. Keeping up with deadlines for papers and articles, studying for exams and finals, making new friends and keeping the old (that’s a nursery rhyme, right?) — it all takes a toll. I have taken my fair share of naps but I’ve found that simply sleeping away my day doesn’t quite help me get everything accomplished (shocking, I know). So…
One month ago, I decided to try doing yoga every day for one month using DOYOUYOGA’s 30 day beginner’s challenge. My instructor, Erin Motz, focused on a variety of different muscle groups, yet repeated a Vinyasa (a breath-synchronized movement) so that I (or any user) could become pro (yeah, right) in one area (the Vinyasa) while being exposed to other things, too. Erin made me, with bleary eyes and knotty hair, go upside down in downward dog before breakfast.
I was not a perfect and graceful yogi. Sometimes I forgot to do a day’s yoga and had to double up the next day. Sometimes I did it with a friend and we talked while doing the stretches, likely mitigating yoga’s calming effects and mindfulness. And sometimes I did yoga while my roommate studied on her computer, leading me to make silly faces at my reflection in her screen, and distracting me from fully focusing on my form and breathing. Yes, I’m easily distracted.
However, despite the many noise variables in my mini yoga experiment, I did learn some things that I’d like to share.
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1. If you get kinks in your neck or suffer from lower back pain that makes you question your age, wake up to yoga!
I sleep in funny positions all the time. Sometimes I just am so exhausted from studying that I just collapse in weird positions, sleeping soundly through the night as my body tries to say, “Hey! Why are laying like this! You’re hurting me!”
If my lower back hurt and I started my day with a yoga routine, however, my aches felt a little better in a short 15 minutes. This is so crucial for college students because I know a lot of us are sitting all day and we’re hunched over our textbooks and we’re lying in uncomfortable places (library table, anyone?) trying to get in a quick power nap. Don’t put up with those aches that will affect the quality of your day and your next night’s sleep! Give that part of your body a proper stretch and it’ll thank you for it.
2. Getting your blood flowing wakes you up!
Okay, so I might’ve already known this because I work out in the morning (sometimes) and I know that a good workout really wakes me up. When I don’t work out, I just sort of put on clothes and groggily crawl to class.
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But, I didn’t always do yoga in the morning. Sometimes I did yoga when I got back from class, sometimes midday, and sometimes in the evening before I did my last couple hours of homework. Whenever I did it, I was rejuvenated and could return to my homework not only with my body feeling better, but with my mind refocused (could yoga be replacing my coffee?!).
My yoga sessions only lasted 15-30 minutes, and I definitely saw a change in how focused I was afterwards even after the 15 minute sessions. This showed me that, in the future, if I need energy, instead of grabbing a soda which is bad for me and probably going to keep me up past when I want to be awake, I can get in 15 minutes of exercise and then regain focus.
Yoga works, but so would taking a short walk, doing 15 minutes on a treadmill/elliptical/bike, or doing a quick little circuit in your room.
3. The most important thing I learned doing yoga was that it important to devote time to myself.
In college, you have to devote time to your professors and your friends and your boyfriend (or girlfriend) and your parents and at the end of the day, you just crash in your bed and call that your me-time. But taking a break, promising myself that there would be no homework doing, no phone calls, no texts during this 15-30 minute window was so refreshing. The time was entirely for me.
Taking time to relax and check-in with myself did not cause my GPA to plummet or cause me to lose all my friends. Believe it or not, taking time for myself only reaped positives. I was happier and more focused afterwards, and I could look forward to that break the next day.
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In college, we tend to feel like there is such an overwhelming amount of stuff to do, that we can’t have any time for just breathing. We feel like breathing time is time wasted. But you are worth 15 minutes of your own time. It’s okay to take a break and do something that makes you happy.
I don’t think yoga is the only option in terms of relaxing me-time – far from it. I’d say doing 15-30 minutes of anything you really like would probably rejuvenate you, but I think it’s especially beneficial if you’re able to think and check in on yourself. So don’t do something mindless like watch Netflix (I know, who would say such a thing?), but try taking a walk, sitting in a bubble bath, drawing a picture, running, painting, journaling, singing, praying or just laughing.
You can try what I did if you’d like. I had a good experience. Then again, I don’t think it’s necessarily something I’m going to stick with. But I am going to make time for myself more regularly. Not nap time, but time to walk or run or journal. Maybe I’ll try meditating. You could try yoga, or you could just try doing something for you, something that takes you away from your school work and your stressors, for 15-30 minutes a day. Commit that time to yourself. You deserve it.