The room is bare; there is no incense or candles or decorative paintings. The floor is no longer shining, and the florescent lighting cannot compete with the gentle glow of candles used in professional studios. And yet, it is in this space that students can finally let down their guard and let go of the pressures weighing down on them.
Unlike most high schools, Brookline offers a yoga course taught by three different teachers. According to Health and Fitness teacher Roberta Skoff, this course is meant to give students a new way to exercise, while providing them with an outlet for stress.
Yoga is the most popular course in the health and fitness department, Skoff said. She added that her goal in teaching the course is to help students attain a healthier approach to life.
“I would like everybody to be able to get joy from the classes,” Skoff said. “To unplug themselves from all the technology: their phones, their computers. To be able to learn how to relax, to learn how to meditate, to get more flexible, to increase muscular strength.”
Many of her students said they prefer her approach to teaching to the teaching in a professional yoga studio. Sophomore Emma Kelley said she likes the togetherness and friendliness that is so stressed upon in the school classes.
“It’s more unified at BHS,” Kelley said. “With Ms. Skoff, there is a lot of effort to know other people, and attendance is really important, so people come to all the classes.”
According to Kelly and sophomores Ola Soltan and Caroline Cutlip, the lack of community in professional studios has led them to gravitate toward the atmosphere in Skoff’s classes. However, regardless of the students’ preferences, Skoff’s goals are incredibly similar to those of a professional yoga teacher.
Tatyana Souza, a yoga teacher at the Coolidge Corner Yoga studio believes that yoga is meant for relaxation and a way to increase physical and emotional strength.
“The goal for me to teach yoga is to give people the space where they can connect their mind and their body,” Souza said. “That mind-body connection will allow the mind to relax and relieve their stress and for a moment just feel free of the daily obligations. Then, hopefully when they come out of yoga class, they feel renewed, recharged and have a better rest of their day.”
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Cutlip believes that having a time when one can just focus on relaxing is extremely beneficial.
“It’s really helpful to just pause, because you’re kind of going going going until the night when you sleep,” Cutlip said.
Soltan agreed that yoga helps alleviate some of the pressure students typically face.
“When we did meditation and we were just lying on the floor, when I got up I really felt a lot more relaxed,” Soltan said. “That was a nice beginning to my day, and for the rest of the day, my stress levels were lower.”
According to both Kelley and Soltan, the aspect that attracts students the most is not an expensive setting or fancy lighting, but a warm, friendly classroom where they can shed any inhibitions that hold them back during the day.
“For me, it’s more important to have a unified setting, and Ms. Skoff really goes out of her way to make sure we all interact with different people,” Kelley said. “For me, its really important to keep that community feel.”
Sasha Sais can be contacted at bhs.sagamore@gmail.com
