During the morning announcements, you may have heard that “yoga will be in the aux gym today.” These yoga sessions are led by Jenny Ferguson who has been teaching these classes since they started. These half hour sessions help students relax and relieve themselves of stress. As the SOL and exam season begins, these sessions become increasingly beneficial to help take students’ minds off of the constant pressure that they are under.

Mrs. Wyatt organizes these sessions which are funded by the PTSA. With continued funding from the PTSA, a second year of yoga at Oakton has been able to be supported. Mrs. Wyatt initially organized these sessions with the purpose of helping ease anxiety and soothe students. She says, “if they know what it feels like to be balanced through yoga or through little meditations that we do in yoga, they could do that in the classroom.” Mrs. Wyatt wants students to be able to recenter themselves when they are stressed and to be able to go into a calmer state wherever they are. She hopes that attending yoga will help students feel less anxious and continue with their day so they can avoid missing class and assignments which she thinks would cause more stress.

“Really it’s providing students with a tool that they can carry around anywhere they go,” Mrs. Wyatt says and believes that this is the most beneficial factor of attending yoga sessions because students know they are capable of going into a calm state and can utilize it whenever and wherever they are. This could prove increasingly helpful when students are taking an exam or a SOL to not stress out over a question they are having a hard time with.

Since May is such a hectic month, attending these yoga sessions could potentially be very useful for students who want to learn how to be able to reach a state of calm whenever they want. These sessions would also provide a time for students to relax because many Oakton students have activities outside of school on top of homework, so they don’t have much time to take out of their day to relax. The strategies of relieving anxiety and stress that are taught during yoga would be very helpful for many students at Oakton, and you should definitely consider going the next time yoga is offered.