Yoga is a spiritual discipline based on a subtle science, which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. There are over 300 million yoga practitioners in the world. It is widely practiced for health, relaxation, and stress relief. In a national survey, over 85% of people who did yoga reported that it helped them relieve stress. Yoga has many benefits like improved attention, strength, flexibility, and pain relief. 

In 2020 yoga was added as a PE elective class to Ridgeline. Students took to it immediately. Makady Hansen, the instructor for yoga, explained the change she has seen so far, “Students start to see more priority in themselves and taking care of themselves”. Yoga teaches students to listen to their mind and body and take that and adapt it so they are less stressed and more relaxed. Mrs. Hansen even said that it can help with extracurricular activities and academics. 

In yoga you go through different poses, learn to meditate, and learn about mental health. Students love the class and some even take it every year. Alyssa Thompson, who has taken yoga four times says, “It’s a good time for kids to relax and take some time for themselves in order to possibly get through some tough times.” She also said that it is a good and pretty easy way of being active without doing a sport. Alyssa dances and said that yoga has helped her become more flexible. Because most students have some amount of stress from school, yoga is the perfect way to learn to deal with stress. To take tension and process it, then work through it. Alyssa said, “I think that everyone should take this class not only for the credit but for themselves.” Next year the school is adding yoga 2 which will focus more on doing yoga flows.