Feeling Stressed? Molly Sultany May Have the Solution

Feeling stressed out? Northwest Academy may have the antidote to your worries.

Molly Sultany invited her yoga instructor, Lorijo Daniels, to lead a class open to anyone in the Northwest Academy community.

“I believe in yoga,” Daniels said. “I think it’s great medicine for your body and I like to pass it on because it’s a really nice way to express creativity.”

Sultany, high school science teacher, is currently teaching a health elective where students will learn about physical and mental health. Right now, they are studying the neuroscience of sleep, stress and substance abuse.

Since stress is a common occurrence in a work environment, especially an academically rigorous school such as Northwest Academy, it is essential to help students find outlets to minimize anxiety.

“Research suggests that regularly practicing yoga and meditating can change your body’s response to stress,” Sultany said. “The beauty of yoga is that it activates both mind and body to train the nervous system to return to a calm, balanced state after a stressor.”

Beyond being scientifically proven to help stress, Sultany wanted to show her students different techniques for confronting it.

“I want my students to learn how to take good care of themselves, and this workshop is one representation of ways to cope with stress that may be helpful for teens,” Sultany said.

Students also feel that it is nice to have some form of stress relief.

“Northwest Academy is a hard school, and sometimes you can get really stressed because of all the homework,” John Elliott, a sophomore, said. “For me, it makes school easier to have a way to relieve my stress.”

Sultany hopes to hold another yoga seminar later in the year.