From Optional to Essential: Making the Case for Yoga in the Curriculum by Jeiki

From Optional to Essential: Making the Case for Yoga in the Curriculum by Jeiki - June 2025 Scholarship Essay

Every day, students sit through hours of classes, often anxious, restless, and disconnected from their bodies yet the solution might be as simple as a yoga mat. Yoga is essential for the body due to the fact that it is a highly beneficial form of stretching. Yoga should be required in class due to the fact that it vastly benefits physical health, mental well-being, and academic performance.
Yoga improves flexibility, strength, posture, and overall physical health by giving your body the opportunity at relaxation through breathing mechanisms and a time for your body to experience proper meditation. This isn't implemented enough in school for students to understand if they're not majored in exercise science. This is an important stat due to the fact this major has been perceived to only be the 24th most popular major in the world. This means that just as there is a significant number of students that are aware there is a very significant amount that are unaware.
Yoga activates crucial nerves that develop in the inner nervous system such as the parasympathetic nervous system that can be referred to as the "rest and digest" system which is essential to countering the body's stress response. Yoga promotes mindfulness, helping students build confidence and inner peace. When I participated in yoga it allowed me to conquer things in college I believed were unattainable simply by giving my mind, and body a sense of patience and peace.
There are also some troubles that may be perceived and concluded at the beginning of yoga. For students who don't often pertain into yoga the exercises can be very difficult which can lead to stress injuries or joint misalignment if the exercises aren't done or supervised correctly. With the right approach in college yoga can be very cost-effective by making sure there is a professional who has experience in the department for yoga that can efficiently teach the students how to properly perform the yoga exercises.
In conclusion, yoga should be mandatory for students to ensure their bodies future, and emotional state be the best it can possibly uncover. If schools are meant to prepare students for life, then yoga—teaching balance, resilience, and peace—should be as fundamental as math or reading.