Stress: (noun) A state of mental or emotional strain resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. With piles of homework, upcoming tests, books to read, and projects to do, it’s easy for most high school students to feel incredibly stressed. Luckily, there are many ways in which students can relieve themselves from the crushing load of stress, such as joining the newly formed De-stress club or Yoga and Pilates club.

Although junior year is rumored to be the most intense year of the high school experience, Yoga and Pilates club president Ayva Barton still finds time to release her stress by taking a few minutes to calm down and center herself everyday. 

“I really like yoga and pilates, and I think it helped me a lot with my own mental and physical well being,” Barton said. “I wanted to share that with the students here.”

Barton’s yoga and pilates journey started soon after she stopped playing basketball but still wanted to work out and keep fit. 

“I realized that on YouTube and everywhere on the internet, there’s a lot of resources for at-home yoga and pilates,” Barton said.”I think it’s something that everyone can do and I just started to like it a lot.”

Another club that also works to promote good mental health and overall well being among  students is the De-stress club, headed by senior Angie Jiang. Jiang also realized how stressful a single day at school can be and wanted to create a space where students could unwind and recover from completing yet another day at school.

“School is obviously stressful and sometimes homework is too, so [De-stress club] is kind of an in between,” Jiang said.

The De-stress club is planning to do a variety of activities over the course of the school year, all of which are centered around giving students a break from their busy schedules and all the stress that comes with being a high school student.

“We’re going to make lucky stars,” Jiang said. “They’re made out of a strip of paper, which is convenient. My plan is to get them to write whatever stresses them out on the strip of paper and then fold it up into a star and put it in a jar which we will provide.”

Out of the 104 clubs that students are able to choose from, all clubs have something that sets them apart and makes them unique. Although both the Yoga/Pilates and De-stress clubs are about relaxing and letting out stress, they both achieve this goal in different ways.

“I think one thing that’s different about our club is that for most of the [other] clubs, is that instead of actually doing [the activity], especially for physical things, you learn about it,” Barton said. “But for our club, we’re actually doing it for 99% of the time.”

All people have goals; it’s what prompts them to get out of bed in the morning and drives them throughout the day. When it comes to the De-stress club, Jiang has one main goal that she hopes to achieve.

“I’m not really sure about future plans [for the club], but I do have a goal,” Jiang said. “The only goal I have is to maybe help someone at least a little bit.”