Counseling Services Counselor Allison Agresti leads the Elon community through a virtual mindful yoga workshop to promote mental wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a time where anxiety could easily creep into our minds, Elon Counseling Services is offering ways to combat it by helping the community re-center and relax during this period of social distancing.
Counselor Allison Agresti has released a virtual version of her mindful yoga workshop on YouTube to promote mental wellness amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The 51-minute video takes viewers through a variety of gentle poses and exercises meant to connect the mind and body through breathing to initiate a calming response in the nervous system.
“Very often, when we are anxious or stressed, our nervous system enters that survival response – fight, flight or freeze – and gets stuck there, especially right now because most of us at least have never experienced a pandemic, so I don’t think our bodies quite know how to react,” Agresti said.
Agresti, who taught mindful yoga workshops every Monday night while students were still on campus, says the practice has been proven to have positive effects on mental health, especially as it relates to anxiety, depression and trauma. She hopes continuing these yoga sessions virtually can give the Elon community “a calm oasis from the storm.”
“I hope that they will be able to find a calm, safe, grounding place,” Agresti said. “I know that can be hard right now, and I speak that as a fellow human in the world with everything going on. It’s not easy, and yoga in particular can be helpful in tuning some of that out because you’re trying to bring your mind and your body into the here and now and hopefully not thinking about everything else going on.”
For more information about this and upcoming virtual mindful yoga workshops, email Allison Agresti at aagresti@elon.edu. And to learn about all the ways Elon Counseling Services is working to assist Elon students, faculty and staff throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, visit the office’s website here.