EHS Story

The Mental and Physical Benefits of Yoga (Date: April 30, 2025)

 There is the smell of incense that wafts through the air, as there is the sweet, succulent sound of pleasant music flooding the atmosphere. Light washes through the windows of a beautiful, warm morning, as people sit themselves apart on the floor on comfortable yoga mats, their arms stretching above their heads as they follow along to the soothing voice of their instructor guiding them through their movement and breathing. A sense of peacefulness floods the room, as the body is overtaken with focus and relaxation. 

 Yoga is a type of exercise that focuses on the entirety of the body, all while developing strength, posture, flexibility and balance. 

 “Researchers studied a small group of sedentary individuals who had not practiced yoga before. After eight weeks of practicing yoga at least twice a week for a total of 180 minutes, participants had greater muscle strength and endurance, flexibility, and cardio-respiratory fitness,” said Dr. Howard E. LeWine, Chief Medical Editor for Harvard Medical Publishing. 

 However, not only is it a healthy form of helping the body, but it can also help with weight loss. 

 “Researchers found that people who practiced yoga for at least 30 minutes once a week for at least four years gained less weight during middle adulthood. People who were overweight actually lost weight. Overall, those who practiced yoga had lower body mass indexes (BMIs) compared with those who did not practice yoga. Researchers attributed this to mindfulness. Mindful eating can lead to a more positive relationship with food and eating,” Dr. LeWine explained in his article. 

 Dr. LeWine also mentioned within his paper that there are no mirrors in yoga studios. This is an important detail, as he explained that the focus of yoga is to be “inward.” This helps to focus on improving the health of body image. 

 “Therefore, you can benefit immensely from a process that enables you to think more clearly, breathe more effortlessly, and move more efficiently. This is, in fact, our starting point and definition of yoga practice: the integration of mind, breath, and body,” says the second edition of the “Yoga Anatomy” book, written by Leslie Kaminoff and Amy Matthews.

 Karolina Rozalia Klatka, a 28-year-old graduate student at the University of Wyoming, is a yoga instructor who has been doing yoga for eight years starting in 2017 on campus. 

 She loves seeing the energy of her students and if there is one thing she has learned over the years, it is that it is always important to have patience and that you can constantly learn more in yoga.

 “I think it [yoga] gives you more of an awareness of where you are spatially,” Klatka explained thoughtfully.

 Klatka’s background was in dancing and that helped influence her to get into yoga.

 “Because it’s not necessarily flexibility that you’re gaining, but just, like, general mobility in your body. And I also gained a lot of strength when I did my certification in 2017. I was in Downward Dog so much that I didn’t fit some of my shirts,” Klatka explained with a chuckle.

 Klatka explained that yoga is for everyone, and it is not the same experience from person to person. For her, yoga mentally helps her to focus on harnessing the flow of each inhale and exhale.

 Along with Klatka, Mary Constance De Aquino, also a 28-year-old graduate student at the same university, is a student who has been taking yoga classes on campus with Klatka being her instructor since the fall of 2024. Having done yoga since 2020, she said that yoga helps to ease stress.

 “I think that it [yoga] makes you confront your stress. Sometimes, I think, on a great day, you start doing yoga, and your mind is calming, and you’re matching your breath and your movement, like Klatka said,” Aquino acknowledged softly. 

 Aquino also said that with that stress the mind has a lot going on that can be difficult to silence. In fact, from Kaminoff and Matthews’s book, they explain that yoga helps us to seek the happiness that was inside of us all along, but that we, as individuals, need to unclear the way of the obstacles that keeps one from achieving said happiness mentally. 

 There are more than just instructors and students, but there are also business owners in the yoga world. Audrey Jansen, the owner of Seek Yoga Studio, had been doing yoga for a long time. In fact, Seek Yoga Studio was originally calledBlossom Yoga back in Feb. 2020. Jansen explained that she rebranded five years ago during the summer with a fresh perspective. 

 As a yoga teacher for her studio, she incorporates a unique aspect of posture, or as Jansen said, “asana,” in the yoga world. Not just that, but she also explained that there was a strong aspect with meditation and mindfulness in yoga. 

 “We’re so, especially with media, used to constantly being entertained and, like, one thought to the next and one task to the next and how much can we do and how much can we think about, which makes it a huge rise in anxiety right now,” Jansen described solemnly.

 She also explained how yoga helps people be conscientious of their thoughts and how to let them go, especially with information overload.

 Jansen explained happily with a smile, “Yoga helps with mobility. So, it increases flexibility, increases strength, helps with balance. We do a lot of things that are on one leg or on, you know, one hand and one leg.”

 For yoga, it is not just a battle of the mind, but a battle of the body, as well. It is a sport of flexibility and letting the body breathe and become one with the world around it.

“And one thing I’ve always cherished about yoga is that, at its core, this is a practice of unity, and the goal should always be within yoga to be practicing and acting in ways that create and support unity,” Jansen said pleasantly.

If you or anyone you know is interested in taking any yoga classes, the University of Wyoming offers classes on campus. You can find schedules, times and sign up on their website. If that does not suit your fancy, you can find YouTube videos of yoga lessons that you can do in your own time. 

References

Kaminoff & Matthews. (2011). Yoga Anatomy. Human Kinetics.

LeWine, H. E. (2024). Yoga – Benefits Beyond the Mat. Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/yoga-benefits-beyond-the-mat