All of us would like to stay healthy, but with today’s lifestyles it just seems to get harder and harder. This is perhaps why yoga has become increasingly popular. People of all backgrounds have begun to wake up to the fact that yoga is not some mystical practice for super bendy gurus and new age seekers of eastern religions. Requiring just a few minutes each day anyone can attain the wonderful feeling of balance and serenity of mind and body that practicing yoga brings.
So how does it work? Perhaps the first thing that comes to your mind when you encounter the word yoga is a person, seated on a mat, and doing some stretches. As strange as every yoga position may look like, it is those stretches that bring a feeling of wellness to the person performing it. By stretching your muscles, it helps to relieve muscle stiffness, pain, and tension. It also helps in lubricating the joints, making it easier and less painful to move our joints and other major body parts.
What are some of the health benefits?
Yoga improves posture. It helps in strengthening our muscles, allowing for better posture and body support. As we become less stiff It makes sitting and standing for longer periods of time a lot easier.
Yoga is also deeply relaxing as it effectively removes tension not just from our bodies but also from our minds. It helps to release stress and in the process replacing it with a sense of calm. Often, people who do yoga for the first time claim that they immediately feel less stressed after just one session.
While yoga cannot be considered an aerobic fitness regime, it can improve our lung capacity. This is achieved through the mindful breathing that accompanies every yoga pose. Depending on the pose and the purpose, the breath can be deepened or lengthened to contribute to relaxing the body. This in turn affords greater ease in the stretch or posture.
For sufferers of high blood pressure yoga might just be the answer that you need. This is because of its relaxing effects that make us feel less tensed. Hence lowering blood pressure and makes us less prone to some heart diseases and even stroke.
Depression is one of the major causes of sickness these days. Because when we are depressed we tend to take less care of our body. We start to eat unhealthy foods and often have no energy or enthusiasm to exercise. Sleep also becomes difficult and night time hours are spent worrying. While yoga is not the complete solution it can definitely help in improving mood and concentration which in turn help to fight off depression.
The health benefits of yoga goes on and on, but those mentioned in this blog are among the top ones. Basically I’m just trying to encourage anyone who hasn’t tried it yet to give yoga a try. You won’t end up joining a cult or even wrapping your legs around your neck but you will begin to experience better health and a sense of wellbeing as well as meeting some lovely similarly health-conscious people along the way.