It is a valuable skill to be able to integrate something you enjoy into your workspace and beyond.

Ms. Barnett has learned that skill and welcomed it into her teaching.

Barnett has taken the patience, positivity, and focus she has learned from both practicing and instructing yoga and embraced it in her classroom.

This has ultimately created a more inviting space for her students.

“I started taking yoga when I was a sophomore in college because I had really bad issues with anxiety and just getting really nervous,” Barnett said. “I tried it and then I fell in love with it.”

Yoga started as a way to combat personal struggle for Barnett but soon developed into more than a hobby. Despite her busy schedule she still manages to share the practice of yoga with her friends and community.

Barnett has been instructing community yoga classes and will soon be instructing a class at Pivot Brewing in Lexington.

Several benefits of the practice of yoga prompted her passion.

“I love how you feel right after you take a class,” says Ms. Barnett. “You just feel really calm and like you could conquer the world that day. The breathing and meditation makes me feel relaxed and confident after a class.”

Barnett incorporates the skills she has learned from yoga to better manage her classroom and create a welcoming learning environment.

“It’s a lot of patience and breathing and focusing on the things that are going well, not what’s going wrong,” she says. “Hopefully my kids kind of get that same vibe from me.”

Despite being a common practice, yoga is often misunderstood.

“People think yoga is one size fits all but it’s not,” she said. “Good yoga classes are tailored to what the students need. People think that yoga is just for people who are fit and in shape or people who exercise a lot but it’s not. Some classes are more meditation and relaxation based while others are more endurance and strength based.”

Barnett has even considered bringing yoga into the school.

“I thought about maybe starting with faculty first and then see if people would be interested in bringing it to our students,” she says. “I think it’s definitely something we could do in the future.”