It’s 7:30 in the morning. It’s cold, you’re tired and you’re at school. But rather than making your way to a desk to work on a computer or write with paper and pencil, you make your way to the rack at the back of the room where the yoga mats are stored. You lay out your mat on the floor, staking out your own personal square, and breath by breath you copy the motions of your yoga instructor.

The course Achieving Health Through Yoga meets in the Tappan Gymnasium during Z, A, C and G-blocks and provides a space for all students where they can engage in meditative and physical wellness.

Junior Edie Kindall, who is in the Z-block section of the class, said they first signed up for the class freshman year, not because of an interest in yoga but because they needed a wellness credit. Two years later, they’re still in the class.

“I was really worried going into it because I think yoga is a little bit humiliating,” Kindall said. “I was worried that I would just be embarrassed the whole time. But honestly, everyone there is tired, and most of them are only doing it for the credit. It’s not a depressing environment; it’s just relaxed. It doesn’t really feel like a big moment of social anxiety. I’m a fan of the class, to be honest. I’m warming up to it.”

Kindall said their teacher gauges how the class is feeling and plans what they call “flows” accordingly across their classes.

“When we get there, we all set out our mats and usually start by just sitting,” Kindall said. “Then we do some gentle exercises to get into it and then, depending on the day, we’ll do different flows. Some of them are more active, like there will be a push up or core involved. And then, there was one day when everyone was feeling tired and the teacher picked up on that, so we did a restorative flow that class and we did different positions lying on the floor, which was nice.”

While Kindall came into the class completely new to yoga, others, like senior Tamar Kadosh, who’s been practicing yoga at a studio outside of school for three years, come to the class for more yoga.

“It’s a time and a space where I can meet with people that are in that class and we just talk,” Kadosh said. “We’ll just sit there for the first 10 minutes while we’re waiting for everything to start and then once we start, it’s just a learning experience. We’ll be like, ‘Hey, are we doing this right? Is this right? Does this look right?’ And we’ll just collaborate. We’ll help each other in the class.”

Kadosh said she feels the class, and yoga in general, helps her clear her mind.

“The energy when you’re moving with the rhythm of your breath, it’s definitely a way to start your morning,” Kadosh said. “I feel like if you’re doing it before school, it’ll definitely relax you before the chaos of the school day. It’ll open your mind. It’ll give you some time to think about your day, about yourself, about what you have to achieve during the school day before you actually start the school day.”

Kindall also said that the relaxed atmosphere of the class helps relieve stress and that, throughout the course, they’ve been able to make new friends and strengthen existing friendships.

“I think it does check something off in my mind like a little ounce of success for my day- I went and I completed the yoga class,” Kindall said. “We do a lot of talking about breathing and relaxing and other stuff that I don’t see playing out in my life a ton. I go there and I know people in the class, so that makes it feel a little bit better, just having someone to talk to.”

Wellness teacher Emily Hunt, who’s been teaching Achieving Health Through Yoga for six years now, said that it’s one of her favorite classes to teach.

“I love [yoga] because, like I always tell my students, you can’t be bad at it. It’s really about meeting the needs of everyone,” Hunt said. “It’s a practice where you can have advanced, complicated poses that require a lot of strength, and in the same exact class, those poses could be modified to make it easier based on their needs that day- not just different abilities, but the different needs that come up for any one person day-to-day. I mean, there are certain days where I’m feeling tired or sore or tense, so every day our practice looks a little different, and it still benefits your body. It benefits your mind.”

Kadosh said she believes that yoga is something that any student could do, no matter how they might perceive the hobby before they take the class.

“It is definitely more fun than it sounds,” Kadosh said. “Especially with the vibe of the classroom. It’s very free. There’s no negative energy in a yoga studio.”