Yoga And Wellness Club Encourages Mindfulness During Pandemic

by Amira Salem

Did you know Niskayuna has a Yoga and Wellness Club? Taking a little bit of time out of your day to focus on yourself is really great for your mental health. Yoga and meditation can be great for anxiety and stress relief as well as having other health benefits. A big part of these things is mindfulness, which is being aware of what you are sensing and feeling in the moment without any judgement. Mindfulness can help with emotional intelligence and managing your emotions and feelings instead of being overwhelmed by them. There are also a bunch of different breathing techniques that can be done during yoga and meditation that can help with anxiety and focusing. There are different types of yoga as well. In Yoga Club, two of our favorite types of yoga to practice in yoga club are vinyasa yoga and restorative yoga. Vinyasa yoga is considered a more athletic type of yoga where you flow from one pose to another, and restorative yoga is more relaxing and slow. If you are feeling sore in a particular area of your body you could also focus on that area in your yoga practice.

Normally, you can go to yoga classes to practice yoga, but many of these are harder to find right now due to COVID-19. However, don’t let that hold you back. There are so many free yoga classes on YouTube as well as on apps (some of which are free, some of which are not). The same thing goes for meditation, but you can also meditate on your own without any guidance. In Yoga Club we use meditation and yoga videos from YouTube. One of our favorite YouTube channels for both things is Yoga With Adriene. We also sometimes use meditations from the Heartfulness app. With so many easily accessible options, why not try it? There are also some local yoga studios that offer virtual yoga classes through Zoom which is another great option!

As co-president of the Yoga Club, I personally enjoy doing yoga because of the self-care aspect of it. I always come out of it feeling more centered and refreshed. I usually like to do yoga at the beginning of the day to focus myself before doing what I need to do that day, and to set some goals for the day ahead. It can also be nice to do yoga at night to relax after a long day. My co-president Maya Dhinesh says, “I love yoga because it helps me reset my mind and it improves my focus.”

Nisky Yoga and Wellness Club meets every Friday at 2:45 to unwind a little after the week. Since we are obviously meeting virtually now, we recommend finding an open space in your house to do yoga in. It is best to have as few distractions as possible so you can really focus on the practice. We try to keep things relatively easy so you do not need any equipment; you don’t even need a mat if you don’t have one. You can also turn your camera off if it makes you feel more comfortable, after all, the whole point of this club is to relax. Every meeting we follow a meditation video and a yoga video. We try to pick different videos every time depending on how we all feel that day and we are always open to suggestions! You can find us on Instagram at @niskyyoga and join our Remind by texting “@niskyyoga” to 81010. You can also email Ms. McCarty at kmccarty@niskyschools.org to be added to our Google Classroom which is where our google meet link can be found.