Finding Balance: The Case for Yoga

Anna Lawrence-Wasserberg on 21 March 2025

I have tried nearly every exercise class under the sun; partly because I am addicted to free Class Pass trials, partly because my destroyed attention span forces me to switch up everything I do so I don’t die of boredom, and partly because I love being able to turn my brain off and follow instructions for an hour. Most days of the week I find myself in the gym, on a run, on the tennis courts or in a random studio, and I love it – I think. 

Now nobody needs my unqualified self to tell you all the benefits of exercise, but just for fun, let’s list a few. Your sleep improves, you have more natural energy, the endorphins make you happier and less stressed, you have better cognitive function, your risk of chronic disease is reduced and, of course, if you do it enough, your body physically changes. As all annoying gym addicts say, I have never once regretted a workout. It always, without fail, makes me feel good afterwards. However, I tend towards more high-intensity workouts, like boot camp style classes. Often the mental convincing it takes just to get there, knowing how intense it will be, is half as strenuous as the class itself. 

So, when I was offered to attend a free yoga class with Ashleigh (@yogaclubleeds on Instagram), I jumped at the chance. 

Image Credit: Ashleigh Cunningham

Yoga is a practice that I have always held very dear. My grandma Carole was a yoga teacher and continued to teach almost her entire life. In Year 11, along with three of my best friends, I attended weekly classes during the “stress” of our GCSEs (bless us we had no idea what was to come). In my first year at Leeds, I also joined Yoga Society, practising in the Union’s beautiful Jade Studio. Even this summer, when working in a Mexican food truck at Glastonbury, I went to classes in the “Yoga Whale” to get into a good mood before my shifts (and repent for my sins the night before). More recently I have been going to yoga classes in my gym, but no more than once a fortnight. I clearly really enjoy yoga, so why do I not prioritise it anymore?

Yoga is an ancient practice, with its own set of benefits, many of them being mental. It has great benefits to one’s strength, balance and flexibility. But, more often than not, yoga is a fairly low-impact exercise compared to other types. Personally, I often opt for high-impact exercise, because I perceive it as having more “benefits”. However, I have recently been wondering if I only believe that because it is the exercise that changes my body the most physically. For some reason, I’m convinced that I’m “wasting my time” actively choosing exercises that prioritise mental well-being more. Knowing that this thought process is not only illogical, but quite harmful, I took the opportunity to attend Ashleigh’s class to challenge this mindset.

The session was in a small studio in Kirkstall, home to many different classes. Ashleigh was immediately warm and welcoming, creating a community feel in her kind nature. I arrived carrying a lot of stress from my third-year deadlines, so was initially slightly reluctant to be there. However, I almost immediately found myself lost in the positivity of the class, following Ashleigh’s instructions to choose to let go of the day and ground myself in the room. 

The poses that we held were strength-based and fairly challenging, demanding you to bring every ounce of attention to your own body. Towards the end of the class, Ashleigh taught us all how to do a headstand, which we had been preparing for with our dolphin poses. Although this was something I hadn’t attempted for God knows how long, I really wanted to give it a go. Ashleigh’s instructions were clear and precise, and low and behold, with a bit of encouragement, I did it (for about two seconds)! The class finished with a short meditation, in which we were encouraged to feel pride in our decision to prioritise our wellbeing by coming to the class. 

Leaving the studio, I felt totally rejuvenated; all the stresses from the day had melted away. I felt pride in the strength of my body for carrying me through the class, I felt proud for having the confidence to attempt a headstand, I felt proud for getting myself there in the first place, and most importantly, I felt pride in prioritising my mental health. 

Exercise should be an act of love for our body, never a punishment. Choosing to do yoga is choosing to actively love your body and yourself, by doing something kind for it. Although I’ll be continuing with my different workouts, this class has been the perfect reminder to start prioritising yoga, and my mental well-being again. I encourage anyone reading who is under the stresses of university, or just life in general, to give yoga a go, specifically @yogaclubleeds for a similar experience. Use discount code “gryphon” for 50% off your first class.

Words by Anna Lawrence-Wasserberg

Unlearning Diet Culture: Healthy Relationships with Food in an All-Girls Household

Anna Lawrence-Wasserberg on 16 March 2025

It is no secret to those who know me, that my absolute favourite genre of film and TV show is 2000s chick flicks. They are the most fun and light-hearted comfort re-watch, with cute outfits, snappy comebacks and (almost) always a happy ending. When it comes to a girly movie night, Tarantino can do one. 

Image Credit: HBO

However, every piece of media in this genre has one thing in common. They always, without fail, reinforce diet culture. Think Regina’s perpetual diet in Mean Girls, Andy being shamed for eating carbs in The Devil Wears Prada, Hannah’s weight loss storyline in Pretty Little Liars, Bridget Jones’s record of her weight in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Even Sex and the City, for all of its empowering, 20-years-ahead-of-its-time observations, falls back into the conversation of losing weight over and over again. 

One might argue that these scenes are intentionally over-the-top and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. However, considering the influence of the media we consume on our real-life culture, the impacts shouldn’t be minimised. Not only is an unhealthy relationship with food expected in women and girls, but, to a degree, it is celebrated. Even further than that, it serves as something that women bond over. Granted, some of the dialogue about diet is satirical, and is making fun of this collective over-obsession, but that still doesn’t negate its place in reinforcing these expectations for women. 

Essentially, women have been socialised, by the media marketed specifically to them, to believe that uniting over wanting to change our bodies is inherent to our female relationships. 

Instead of diving into how irritating I find this, for I fear we could be all day, I want to take the trope in a more positive direction. Every girl and woman I know has struggled with their body image for at least some of their life, usually most of it (bear with me). It’s ingrained into our culture that we should always be striving to change something about our appearance and, more often than not, the conversation comes back to food.

As a second-year student, when I moved into a house of seven girls, the thought of how other people’s relationship with food and their bodies would affect my own certainly crossed my mind, because when you live with people, these things tend to surface. It’s no secret that house-sharing is an intense feat, and the longer you spend together, the more aware of each other’s habits you are. So, imagine my delight when I discovered that living with only girls would be the best my relationship with food and my body had ever been.

As a side note, I think the phrase “relationship with food/my body” has been heavily stigmatised, and when I talk about my own, it is not to imply that it has ever been awful, but, like many other girls, it has always been a conscious part of my day-to-day life. 

Image Credit: iStock

When we first started living together, the seven of us would regularly cook almost comically different meals on a nightly basis. However, as time has gone on, we have inspired each other’s meals, cooking the same thing more often, and eventually cooking all together when we can. Sharing meal ideas has become an act of love for us, wanting our friends to indulge in what we enjoy, so they can garner the same enjoyment. We also subconsciously time our dinners to ensure we are all cooking/eating around the same time, so we can chat and catch up on our days. Food has brought us together daily, and not in the way the movies wanted it to. Even working out, which our culture has a tendency to pervert into self-flagellation with Gymshark leggings on, has become some of our most quality time together, the endorphins muddling themselves with hysterical laughing fits.

Then there is, of course, the sweet treat. The foods that have been demonised our whole lives are the ones that bring us together the most. A giggly night time trip to Sainsbury’s, a cheeky movie snack while we squash on the sofa together – keto hasn’t stepped within 10 feet of our house. These are the foods labelled as “evil” by the protagonists of our favourite films, again often satirically, but never without basis for how they’re generally spoken of. But food that is fun and sweet and you enjoy it together, when everything’s in moderation, why not? 

To coin my previous phrase again, I don’t think anyone’s relationship with food or their body can ever be perfect – diet culture is too embedded in everything we do. However, that shouldn’t stop us from using our lifestyles to disregard all the nonsense we have been taught and instead turn something that has been polarising into a space for community. Food is at the heart of so many cultures, so let’s try and carry on the tradition of it bringing people together, rather than using it to tear ourselves apart.

Words by Anna Lawrence-Wasserberg