As the summer comes to an end, college students across the country are once again facing the rigors of the academic school year. Reducing stress is a common goal. For some, yoga may be the solution.
While celebrities like Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sting have pushed yoga to the forefront of national trends, enthusiasm toward yoga on college campuses has also grown.
Yoga classes, however, are not new to the Tufts ExCollege. "There have been courses on both the study and practice of yoga for a long time, offered consistently over the years," ExCollege Associate Director Howard Woolf said.
According to Woolf, demand for these courses has been constant. "There's always an audience for it," he said. "It's certainly been a consistent audience, not necessarily the largest."
Students appear to be taking full advantage of the yoga programs and course offerings available at Tufts. Sophomore Tara Dhawan practiced yoga the summer before she arrived at Tufts as a freshman. When her parents encouraged her to continue yoga at Tufts, she signed up for a class that met once a week on Fridays.
"It was definitely the best way to relax and unwind after a week of classes," Dhawan said.
Senior Allison Love is having a similar experience. She discovered yoga this semester through a half-credit yoga class offered through the department of physical education and taught by Judy Scribner-Moore. Love plans to continue yoga after the class ends.
"Already I can feel the benefits - it's rejuvenating," Love said. "It's nice that Tufts offers a class such as yoga to [help students] get away from the daily grind and really focus on health and well-being."
Tufts Student Resources (TSR) also offers yoga classes twice weekly on Monday and Friday, taught by senior Noffar Bar. Freshman Eli Netter attended a one-hour TSR yoga class this past Friday.
"The instructor knew what she was doing; she was really professional," Netter said. Netter also pointed out that "yoga relieves stress and is calming - which is ideal for college students."
Such positive marks from students come as no surprise to Susan Laurence, an Athletics department affiliate who also lectures at Harvard. "[Tufts is] right up there with other colleges in terms of interest and enthusiasm [toward yoga]," said Laurence, who taught an ExCollege course last Fall called Yoga: Philosophy and Practice.
According to Laurence, yoga is for people of all ages and abilities. "The benefits are tremendous," she said. "Speaking specifically of college students, [the benefits of yoga include] relaxation, stress reduction, and also keeping fit and healthy."
Woolf had a similar take. He believes that yoga can benefit "people looking for other kinds of spirituality or ways to blend mind and body."
Experts confirm Woolf's suggestion: the benefits of yoga have been purported to be both mental and physical. Many studies have confirmed the link between yoga and stress reduction, and a study cited in a TIME Magazine article showed that yoga, coupled with other lifestyle changes, could benefit patients with coronary heart disease.
Freshman Justin McIntosh was originally interested in yoga for sports. "I've heard [yoga] makes you more flexible and less prone to injury - and it's also just relaxing," McIntosh said.
Still, McIntosh probably won't be practicing yoga at Tufts. He's not alone. Not all students are so supportive of yoga. "It's not very macho to do yoga," freshman Phil Tong said. "Yoga just attracts more girls than guys."
Laurence agreed. Her classes are generally composed almost entirely of females. "Men who do physical activity will tend to do sports or competitive-type activities," she said. "Yoga is certainly not that."
Laurence's personal perceptions suggest that men tend to be slightly more conservative when it comes to doing something different in terms of physical activity - a factor she feels may contribute to the high female-to-male ratio in yoga classes.
Laurence has advice for students who are skeptical of the benefits of yoga: "You should certainly try it and determine for yourself rather than what you hear from other people," she said.
Because yoga affects
individuals differently, some people may experience different benefits than others. According to the magazine Yoga Journal, the most reliable way to learn about the benefits of yoga is through personal experience. Fortunately, from upward arm stretches to downward facing dog pose, many yoga positions cater to the beginner.
Students can count on yoga classes at Tufts for quite some time. "[Yoga] is obviously an area of Eastern culture that has become very influential in certain aspects of American culture," Woolf said. "It's interesting to see what is still current in the culture over time."
"We do get proposals [for yoga classes] on a pretty consistent basis, and when they are considered legitimate by the faculty and the students reviewing them, it's certainly something we are happy to offer," he added.
