Define Yoga: n. a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.

As a college student, I have turned to yoga to experience the feeling of complete relaxation and stress relief as well as body control and flexibility. Most colleges and universities should offer free classes to students, and on the plus side, you can go to as many classes as you wish. For me, I tend to keep it to 3 days a week because more classes can be too much for my body to handle in the early stages. There are many perks of going to a yoga class, and regardless if you are an athlete or non-athlete, it may help in ways you didn’t think it could.

1. A Stress Relief System:

Yoga provides us with a sense of relief, especially when midterms and finals roll around. Our body builds up so much stress that it’s near impossible to get rid of it when tests are over with. We work our bodies to the max, especially when it comes to remembering the work we receive in classes and stressing out at our jobs when they become difficult to handle. However, despite all of our efforts to work off the built up stress through weight room exercises or sports, it doesn’t always play a big enough role. Often, we may leave the gym with stress still lingering behind us. Yoga allows us to leave the stress in the yoga room by letting it out of our system through breathing and relaxing poses.

2. Strength Gain:

Yoga is not an easy exercise to completely master. There are many yoga classes that you have to push your body through in order to gain the strength you desire. Many classes are physical, and help you use balance skills you may have never thought you had or flexibility that you have never dreamed of being able to do. However, despite the physical aspect, it comes in handy to strengthen your muscles for workouts at the gym or with weights. Yoga tightens the muscles in a safe way.

3. A Reason to Actually Wear Yoga Pants:

For all you ladies out there who fear wearing yoga pants in public, this is one place you can wear them and never be judged. They were created for use in the yoga world so people could increase flexibility while covering what others don't particularly want to see. The plus side of yoga in this case is that it helps shape your body. Yoga works on parts of the body that you desire shaping such as the thighs, posture and butt. Believe me, all those downward dogs and tree poses, which requires balancing on one leg and strengthening the muscles in the butt area help a lot.

4. Generates Happiness:

Most of us struggle to find happiness and positivity every day, and when we do yoga, we leave feeling more positive and happy about ourselves than we did when we walked in. Yoga has a power that helps the body overcome feelings and hardships. We take out anger in our poses that may open the soul and allow the release of negativity. We find ourselves to be happier, and more alive after a yoga class. Some may feel like a whole new person after yoga, replenishing the soul with feed of positivity and strength, giving us power.

It never hurts to try something new. Yoga is not easy, but it is a challenge that I’m willing to work at, what about you?