Unroll Your Yoga Mats, It's Finals Week at CSULB!

Ah finals week. It is once again that time of year when the line at Starbucks is always out the door and shlepping around campus in pajamas is suddenly socially acceptable.

The laid back atmosphere of California State University, Long Beach undoubtedly shifts the last two weeks of the semester.

The tables at the campus bar are covered with textbooks instead of beer and we all have a look of desperation on our faces that suggest we could crack at any moment. 

Even though I’ve made it to my senior year, I still haven’t figured out a trick to escape the finals week funk.

What I do know is that all-nighters at the library, study groups, and unspeakable amounts of caffeine take a toll on our deceptively spry bodies, so, this semester I decided to attack the stress of finals week head on … holistically.

I’m pretty sure the closest I have ever been to achieving a state of Zen is ordering Chinese take-out but regardless of that fact, I had been eager to try out one of the Yoga classes offered at The Beach’s Student Recreation and Wellness Center and could not think of a better time than now.

The class begins and our instructor urges us to clear our head, let go of our tension, focus on the poses, and listen to our bodies and minds

What is my mind telling me? “Get off this squishy mat and go write your paper!”

But as the class goes on, my thoughts shift from fixating on my weak thesis statement to obsessing about how klutzy I must look next to this nimble pretzel chick with the perfect downward-facing dog.  Eventually, I’m able to get in touch with what I’m doing, concentrating on my poses and voiding my mind of any and all thought. 

Before I know it, the session is nearing an end and I’m focused solely on myself. My muscles are shaking and I’m perspiring like I just ran a half-marathon, (Seriously, even my kneecaps are sweaty. Yoga is no joke.) but my mind is surprisingly at peace.  At that moment, finals did not matter and the pretzel girl was no longer my public enemy number one.

Yoga was not some magic stress reliever that solved all of my problems.

I still spent the next seven hours in the library writing a paper that, in retrospect, I should have started days earlier, but that hour in the studio turned out to be one of the most relieving study breaks I have ever taken.

So when the stress of work, finals, and the holidays become overwhelming, just remember, “Namaste.”

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