Yoga Relieves End-of-Term Stress for Students
By Liam Prendergast
Nov 20, 2023
As the first term of 2023 wraps up, the pressures of final assignments and exams loom and for many students this is a very stressful time. Moments of relaxation can be few and far between, but yoga could help students de-stress and find the calm they need to complete their studies.
Arliss Kurtz, 59, is currently a registered yoga teacher and is working toward her 500-hour full designation. She notes that “yoga is so much more than flexibility; it’s mind, breath, stress release…. [Yoga] quiets the mind and relaxes us from the threat response. It makes us present, calming the physiological reactions. It’s a break from stressors.”
Kurtz believes yoga also offers “self-discipline, and a greater understanding of oneself.” Kurtz has been a clinical social worker for over 34 years and works with at-risk youth who have experienced trauma that can “disrupt our sense of security and threaten our daily routines.”
Sarah David, 23, is a VIU alumni who graduated this past June with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Criminology and is currently a court/registry clerk at the Nanaimo courthouse. David experienced stress as a student and described it as “a ball and chain that follows you around in your everyday life, always looming.”
David said counselling is a good option for students, but “it can be hard to try to pull out everything that’s going on in your life in one one-hour session, especially if you need that help in that very moment.… I do wish that there were more resources on campus…. I think a yoga class — a drop-in, where you’re not necessarily paying for it and you can just kind of show up — would be really beneficial to a lot of people on campus.”
David urges current third and fourth-year students to seek help sooner rather than later at this difficult time in the term. “Never suffer in silence. It can be very isolating…, but if you hit a very low point where you feel like giving up, I think that’s the best time to reach out to your professors and to those around you to let them know, because if they don’t know, they can’t help.”
Alanna Williams, a Media Studies instructor at VIU, has been practicing yoga since the late 1990s. For her, yoga is “about well-being and about finding balance, and harmony with oneself and others.”
Williams practices kundalini yoga, which is said to awaken dormant energy within the body. Kundalini yoga is influenced by the shakti and tantra schools of Hinduism and uses mantras and meditation in its practice. According to the origins of kundalini yoga, it was introduced to the West in 1969 by Yogi Bhajan.
“Yoga taps into the body’s nervous system for healing and provides a framework to understand oneself as both a physical and spiritual being.Yoga reinforces a mind, body, and soul connection by cultivating a relationship with the breath,” Williams says. This is important for students as it allows them to begin anew and tackle the work with fresh eyes and renewed energy.
Seek out these resources for students on the VIU website if you or anyone you know on campus needs assistance.
