School can be stressful for everyone, but it is especially taxing for our teachers. With homework, tests, and essays to grade, teachers are constantly under pressure to provide the best education for their students. Some students take their stress and channel it into our schoolwork, and some teachers are finding that yoga Mondays are a perfect way to wind down.

Mrs. Winters started teaching yoga for teachers two years ago, hosting it once a week as a way to share her own passion for yoga and to help her coworkers de-stress.

“I wanted to teach yoga to be able to share my passion and to help strengthen, add balance and flexibility to our physical and mental health,” Winters explained. She discussed why she considered this to be the leading factor of what inspired her, saying, “Yoga is a way to relax the body and mind while practicing your own mindfulness.”

Many teachers, like Mrs. Spak, feel tested while taking Mrs. Winters’s yoga class.

“Mrs. Winters is so flexible, I feel like I am going to die after one of her sessions,” Spak said.

Teachers who attend Monday yoga classes have all agreed that it’s beneficial to make time for physical and mental health. For them, this comes through stretching during a yoga class after a long school day.

“When you get older, the stretching aspect of it is harder to get going,” Mr. Lyons said. “It is low impact, but that doesn’t make it easy.”

Many people, however, do not take yoga seriously or underestimate its difficulty. They often don’t believe in yoga’s mentally restorative capabilities, claiming that it’s only useful for the body. And while yoga touches on all aspects of the physical, it does also pushes the flexibility and will of the mind. Though yoga is not the easiest, it has many beneficial factors. and, with practice, many people find relief in it.

Yoga is becoming increasingly recognized in our area. A large aspect of why people participate in yoga is because they want to be healthier and push their comfort zone. Many athletes partake in different forms of yoga, such as hot yoga. It keeps bodies well balanced and stretched for different daily activities. It is considered a form of therapy for our bodies and minds.

For most of us, stress presents itself in many forms, and working our minds and bodies is a proven way to help relieve our stress. North Allegheny has presented itself as a vigorous and fast-paced environment where stress runs rampant from the moment we step through the doors. Mrs. Winters brought yoga to North Allegheny as a way to help fellow coworkers start the week off right, and many of them are seeing results. Every Monday, the teachers know to bring their yoga mats and to prepare themselves for another challenging session.