Yoga is an experience that promotes health and well-being. It is a group of mental, physical, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated in ancient India. With yoga you twist, turn, stretch and breathe in ways that bring infinite potential to the mind and soul. It’s a way of life which can be mastered by anyone with practice. There are different types of yoga catering to different needs.
Here are some benefits of practising yoga:
Flexibility
The first yoga class is bound to feel a bit unnatural and challenging. Be sure not to give up because as you progress, you will find yourself becoming more flexible than ever. You definitely won’t have trouble touching your toe without bending your knees. It loosens up all that tight muscles giving you a more relaxed version yourself. It helps you reduce body pains which will give you more strength and endurance all through the day.
Strength
Yoga builds muscle strength. They don’t just look good but they also make you feel good. They protect you from conditions like back pain and arthritis in the long run. As you build strength with yoga it also helps you balance it with flexibility. It’s always a better option than just lifting weights at the gym when this gives you more benefits in terms of flexibility.
Posture
It gives you a better posture because the key to performing yoga is to maintain the right posture while you are in your position. While exercising yoga, the spine is made to stand erectly over the neck and back muscles to support it.
Poor posture can cause pain in the neck, back and other muscles. It also helps regulate your blood circulation especially in your hands and feet. This can help prevent heart attacks and strokes because they are often caused by killer blood clots.
Blood Pressure
It relieves blood pressure owing to the fact that this is an exercise that calms the body and reduces hypertension. According to a British Medical Journal, Savasana or the corpse pose noticed a 26-point drop in the systolic blood pressure and a 15-point drop in the diastolic pressure number.
As you stretch and contract muscles, your organs move around causing an increase in the drainage of lymph that helps fights infections and thus restoring immunity. This helps to a more healthier lifestyle.
Happiness
Yoga helps lower cortisol levels which help with long term memory and reducing symptoms of depression, osteoporosis and insulin resistance. If you’re feeling low sit in lotus or in a King Dancer Pose that will help you lift your spirits almost instantly!
Yoga teaches you to concentrate and sharpens your mind while you are in the process. The importance of yoga is to focus on the present which helps you achieve instant problem solving abilities, acquire and recall information better than before.
Relaxation
Yoga helps you relax, slow your breath and focus on the present. It changes your sympathetic nervous system to a more parasympathetic nervous system which is calming and restorative in nature.Yoga also helps you sleep better by stimulating your nervous system.
Breathing
Yoga practitioners take fewer breaths of great volume that is more efficient and calming. A technique called “complete breathing” helps people with lung problems to decrease their respiratory rate thereby increasing their exercise capacity. It also increases the oxygen saturation of their blood and also improves lung function including efficiency of exhalation and maximum volume of the breath.
Yoga also teaches to breathe in through the nose thereby warming the air that comes in purifying it from dirt and thus filling your lungs with cleaner air. The benefits of breathing will probably surprise you.
Self Esteem
It’s a perfect way to boost your self-esteem. By taking yoga more than just a replacement for your aerobics class you will access a different side of yourself. You will experience feelings of forgiveness, gratitude and empathy.
It will make you feel like you are a part of something bigger because the motive of yoga is overall well-being both physically and spiritually. As you practice yoga you will notice gradual change in your lifestyle and notice that automatically you will adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Yoga is not just for the body it’s something for the soul. This age old practice gives you more than just physical healing it promotes an overall well-being and touches every aspect of your life that needs healing.
Yoga was developed 5000 years ago and there are many people who have witnessed a change by practising yoga. You can start today for a better tomorrow as you inhale in positive thoughts as you exhale negativity out of your system.