BSA members stretch away stress during spring yoga event
As students approach the end of the spring semester, many may experience the stress of completing their last assignments and preparing for the upcoming final season. A 2023 Gallup poll that aimed to survey college students’ daily emotions noted that 66% of the 2,430 students surveyed reported experiencing stress. This emotion was second to enjoyment, which was merely 10% higher.
Stress may accumulate as tension in their bodies that is often forgotten to make room for more tasks that need to be accomplished. According to the National Institutes of Health, students are more prone to experience “mental distress” around the time of exams and a “decreased [amount afterward] … to a lower level than before the exams.” However, on March 26, the members of the Black Student Association (BSA) combatted this by hosting a yoga night in an Ezell classroom to release this tension.
Marin Brown, the club secretary, guided the students through various yoga positions and stretches during the night. “Honestly, at first, I was very much skeptical about yoga. I thought it was just for … people who just wanted to like, say like, ‘Oh hey! I do yoga,’ but then I actually took a class.” She was inspired to become an instructor after having a session with her cousin, who is certified in the field. Eventually, she started to take more classes and learned how to teach others from her new instructor. Brown, a junior psychology major from Memphis, now strives to become a yoga instructor, and this event added to her experience with teaching. “It just became … an everyday habit that … I do to maintain wellness, and I love it.”
From downward dog to warrior pose stretches, Brown led the students to focus on their breathing and the act of releasing any mental strains that come from school work, sports and even personal issues. Students stood on their mats, following the instructions and exhaling with each shift into a new pose. The room filled with the sounds of liberating stress, with some students groaning and others heaving heavy sighs.
A 2020 study revealed that simply stretching for an hour and a half “can enhance parasympathetic nerve activity and improve stress hormones and mental states in healthy adult men,” regardless of their prior yoga experience.
While the study primarily focused on men, the female participants at the event appeared to have similar results. Alaiyzha Bridges, a sophomore university studies major from Nashville said, “It was nice to get out and stretch and be around friends while I’m able to work my body … and release tension from [the] workload.” Bridges is a regular attendee at BSA events and plans ahead to ensure that she can participate and fellowship with other students, especially those who look like her and share a similar culture. “… It’s always important for me to be around my own community. Being around people and friends who I relate to at a PWI, predominantly white school, is refreshing.”
Student athletes such as Saxon Brown also attended the event. “… Taking care of my body— stretching, … learning how to relax … is really important for me,” said Brown, a sophomore journalism major from Greenville, South Carolina. “[I] haven’t been able to do yoga in a while, so it was good to have this event, get stretched out a bit, especially after a long day.”
While this event aimed to help students calm down, future events for the club will be more lively, such as an upcoming game night. These events can be found on the club Instagram page @bsalipscomb.
