Seth Anandaram Jaipuria College | Affiliated to the University of Calcutta

Yoga in College: Psycho-physiological benefits

College life is an important stepstone in the life of any student. The excitement to delve into the newer realms, the expectancy of what lies ahead, and the eagerness to make the most out of college life are rampant in every college student’s mind. This is the phase when one transitions from a protected environment to a world full of responsibilities. To combat the mounting stress and to fulfill the charge of taking care of oneself, one can resort to practicing yoga routinely.

What is Yoga

Finding its roots in Ancient India, Yoga literally translates to ‘union’. It comprises a set of spiritual, physical, and mental practices that can help one to channelize their body and its functioning in a better way.

Benefits of Yoga

Some of the stark benefits of yoga that college students can experience while practicing it routinely are:

Reducing Stress
There is two levels of stress, that is, eustress and distress. While eustress helps one to work towards their goals in a better way, without adopting a careless attitude towards development, distress can prove to hamper the productivity of students drastically. To handle the situation of distress, yoga helps the students to calm themselves. A routine practice of yoga can help one to minimize distress.
Adding Confidence
By practicing yoga, one encourages a sense of body positivity. This thereby encourages a whole other level of confidence among the students who practice yoga. This instilling of confidence also helps in reducing situations of conflict among peers, as one gains confidence in their inner self.
Enhancing Concentration
Of the many problems that the students face, the lack of attention span or the limited level of concentration is the highest contender among most of them. Yoga relies on being aware of the functioning of one’s body. It focuses on the aspect that one is aware of one’s breathing. This directly influences and positively impacts the concentration level in one’s body.
Instilling Self-Control
When a student is more aware of their body and is thereby more aware of their surroundings, they can very well instill the most vital quality of self-control. Yoga benefits and helps to level up self-control among the students.
Improving Memory
To keep up with the truckload of coursework students experience in the college, practicing yoga can help in managing precisely that. A dedicated yoga practitioner will definitely benefit from it by improving one’s memory.
Improves Metabolism
Metabolism is defined as the process that the body uses to convert food into energy. The level of metabolism that any individual effectuates many features like weight, body function, etc. Yoga channelizes and directs one’s energy in a holistic way, henceforth, improving and enhancing the metabolism level of students.
Managing Time
Directing one’s thoughts in a better manner by starting the day with a good set of yoga practice, one can sort a lot of things that they have to hustle. Henceforth, this leads college students to manage their time in a better way. Thereby, they give a required amount of
Better Posture
Not many know this but a poor posture can have some very lasting consequences on an individual’s health. This is why by practicing yoga in the right manner, one can enhance their posture and thereby stay away from varied health issues that arise from a bad posture.
Strengthens Endurance
Routinely practicing yoga also helps students to strengthen their level of endurance. This in effect results in students preparing themselves for the real world and all the hardships that lie ahead for them.
Exemplifies Mindfulness
To top all the benefits of taking up yoga practice as a routine, mindfulness is ahead of everything else.The act of being aware of one’s feelings, senses, and surrounding without any interruption whatsoever, requires a lot of practice, and to achieve this, yoga becomes a good path.

As is evident, yoga is not only about routine exercise but also the dietary and mental practices that very well affect the nutrition of the human body. Yoga can improve mental and physical health as well as immunity; so Yoga is very helpful during Covid 19 pandamic period.