With fall sports coming to an end, yoga can be an option to stay active and support mental health.

“Yoga helps center your mind and your body, and it’s kind of like a mindfulness practice as well as an exercise,” junior Roxy Comerford, leader of the Yoga Club, said. “It also helps with posture, breathing and calming down, and that is really important in a school environment.”

There are many types of yoga that each target different areas of the body and mind. Hatha yoga focuses on the physical and mental well being, while Jnana yoga develops intellect and wisdom. 

“When I was doing the Yoga Club, I just felt a lot more calm. Even though it’s in the morning and I was tired, it kind of woke me up, and it was really nice to just do it with everyone,” freshman Natalie Nakatisha said. “The main benefit for me is just kind of finding a way to move your body and get to a feeling of calm.”

Yoga has also been proven to improve mental health by relieving depression and anxiety, and can even boost focus and memory, according to the American Osteopathic Association. 

“Yoga really does help me be my best self. It helps me reconnect with intention. It gives me a space to both sometimes relax, and other times to kind of find energy as well,” Devin DeMartini Cooke, International Baccalaureate Coordinator and certified Yoga instructor, said. “It can be a physical practice for exercise, but it can also be a mental practice for a kind of focus on how yoga has changed.”

Yoga is not only great for mental health but it also benefits heart and physical health, according to John Hopkins Medicine website. 

“I am completely new to yoga. I’ve never really done it before, but I wanted to be in the yoga club because I’ve heard a lot of people who benefit from doing yoga,” Nakatisha said. “I thought doing a club at school would be a good idea to kind of get into it and see if it was something I was interested in.”

Due to the pandemic and the new schedule, the Yoga Club has only been able to meet once, but plans to meet more consistently during the second quarter, according to Comerford. 

“Yoga is really cool because anyone can do it. It is not an endurance sport or something that you have to be training for your whole life. You can just do it,” Comerford said. “You can just start out by doing beginner yoga classes that are mostly just stretching your body.”

The Yoga Club meets one to two times per month and works to create a positive and relaxing environment, according to sophomore Kate Richardson. 

“I really love yoga because it puts me in a state of relaxation, which allows me to release stress and be able to focus,” Richardson said. “It is really important to find time during the day to relax and have time to yourself, and yoga is that for me. ”