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I finished yoga teacher training the summer before my third yr of faculty. I used to be coming off of a breakup and had leaned on my practice loads within the yr prior, so it felt intuitive to lean into yoga much more, and teaching runs in my family. My mom is a gaggle fitness instructor, and I loved seeing the community she built round her classes. It gave the look of a natural next step to tap into my teaching potential for a practice that meant a lot to me personally.

During training, my weeks revolved around anatomy lessons, house parties, a legal internship, and my personal spiritual exploration. I didn’t fit the mold of a stereotypical yoga teacher, but that incongruence set the stage for my next two years of teaching yoga on campus.

Teaching My Peers

Not long after I graduated from YTT, I started teaching the 7:15 a.m. vinyasa at my college gym. Since college students aren’t exactly wanting to get away from bed before noon, the category was mostly attended by faculty. Professors I used to be accustomed to seeing in suits behind a podium showed up on their mats, sleepy-eyed and in yoga attire, taking a look at me to steer them through their practice. As someone who grew up watching college hockey, I discovered leading the pinnacle coach through yoga to be a little bit of culture shock.

Amid my shakiness, I reminded myself that this was what college was about: Fake it until you make it. I repeated that mantra to myself greater than once that yr.

I moved on from the once-a-week sunrise yoga and began leading a 5:15 p.m. power class twice per week. I still desired to teach  more, so I hauled my mat to numerous corners of campus to supply classes for clubs and organizations in conference rooms, on the quad, and other makeshift locations.

Those times were fun and brought a lot of experiences that likely wouldn’t have occurred in a yoga studio, like someone practicing together with class from the hallway because they arrived after the doors were shut. (I get it. Sometimes you simply need yoga.) Spending hours making playlists of top hits to make yoga more appealing to reluctant students. Dropping university-specific references, anecdotes, and jokes into balancing sequences and periods of prolonged stillness. (Shout-out to Eagle Pose, which shares a reputation with my alma mater’s mascot.)

Sure, it felt gratifying to be recognized as a yoga teacher by my peers on campus (hello, external validation). Nevertheless it also felt good to know I used to be getting the possibility to share a practice that meant loads to me with people I cared about.

Outside of the Studio

Constructing my “teacher voice” for yoga ultimately helped me find my voice in other arenas. I began to construct confidence not only within the dated rec center studio, but in classrooms and relationships. I often collided with students on the “senior-only” bar, where they told me, while downing their third White Claw, how the flows helped alleviate test anxiety or recuperate from a breakup.

I knew the practice held that power for me, but I used to be surprised to learn that it resonated for others, whether dedicated athletes or chronic tailgaters. These former yoga-skeptics would confide how my 60-minute class had allowed them to breathe. It was an area where that they had permission to rest, to sweat, and to easily be for a complete hour.

Not every class was full of earth-shaking, life-changing moments we examine in self-help books or scroll past on TikTok. Nonetheless, each class was ultimately a practice, a group of moments, where people got here together in space and time in the way in which that they needed. To maneuver their body. To be with their breath. Or to only find some peace and quiet.

I’m currently a clinical psychology doctoral student, and I’ve come to see the true value of yoga for a lot of students—a spot of solace from the numerous stresses of the undergraduate college experience. While some folks got here only to stretch before boosting their heart rate on the 6:15 p.m. spin class, others got here to deal with anxiety and depression, process personal loss, and be in community.

Recent research published in Gallup’s “The State of Higher Education 2023 Report” found that two out of each five undergraduate students say they experience emotional stress in college. The school mental health crisis continues to soar, but for some students, yoga is likely to be the very thing holding them together.

Yoga is just not the answer to the mental health crisis. But even at 20 years old, I saw the ability that the practice holds in a communal space. Students could have begrudgingly taken class on the invitation of their roommate or friend, or because they were searching for a stretch before spin class or after intramural basketball. Nevertheless it was clear to me that numerous people left the practice experiencing the good thing about slowing down, respiration deeply, and moving freely and individually—but not alone.

I had all the time considered yoga to be my personal practice. But teaching yoga in college made me understand it’s so far more.

Meredith Hawkins is currently attending graduate school where she is pursuing a doctorate in clinical psychology. She teaches vinyasa flow classes at Afterglow Studio in Hartford, Connecticut.