A yoga workshop was held on March 5 in order to help students reduce stress in the light of the midterms coming up for most students at Diablo Valley College.

This workshop was organized by student and veteran Scott King who is also part of the veteran yoga project. He has been a yoga instructor for four years and is a volunteer at the veteran hospital.

“Our organization provides yoga classes for veterans dealing with anxiety, PTSD or depression, but this is also applicable to students,” said King.

King has been running this workshop at DVC for a year and a half since students have been asking him to coordinate a class at DVC.

“Midterms period can be really stressful for students, so I am teaching them some techniques, some tools to help them relieve stress,” said King. “Yoga helped me having much more control of my body, it was really good for me.”

With accessible breathing exercises and poses, yoga is known to help bring the mind to the present moment and connect it to the body.

King started by using basic meditation and yoga postures in order to introduce the discipline to those who weren’t familiar to it and then showed simple exercises to use in everyday situations in case of anxiety in order to control your breath.

“Yoga helps me reconnect with my body, especially with the spring break’s excesses, I want to refresh my mind in a way,” said accounting major Mana Ohnuki. “It is also very healthy, I don’t get sick easily.”

While yoga was familiar to some students, it was a total discovery for others like sociology major Desiree Mcdonagh.

“I would like to learn some stress management, some tools to help me,” said Mcdonagh.

More than just an extracurricular activity, yoga helps to keep your mind and body healthy with simply a mat.