Benefits Of Yoga
Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India, to the goal achieved by those disciplines, and to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy.
Whilst the above definition of Yoga may have seemed a bit heavy or confusing, yoga and its cleansing practices have proven to be extremely effective for many disorders ranging from inflexibility to illness.
Some of the benefits of practicing yoga on a regular basis are the following;
8 Physical & Spiritual Benefits of Yoga
1. Increased Flexibility
Increased flexibility and strength can help alleviate & prevent the causes of many pains & ailments.
Doing yoga will provide a greater range of motion to muscles and joints and after a while you can expect to gain flexibility in your hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips which are often the source of pain & impact on other ailments.
One of the most common types of pain that afflicts many is back pain.
Sufferers of back pain spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer or driving a car which are positions that are prone to causing tightness and spinal compression, which can be addressed with the appropriate yoga exercises.
Doing yoga regularly also improves your alignment which helps correct imperfections in your posture & therefore helps prevent many other types of joint & muscular pain.
2. Improved Lubrication of the Joints, Ligaments and Tendons
The well-researched yoga positions exercise the different tendons and ligaments of the body.
Surprisingly it has been found that the body which may have been quite rigid starts experiencing a remarkable flexibility in even those parts which have not been consciously work upon.
Why is this so?
Well it is here that the remarkable research behind yoga positions proves its worth as seemingly unrelated “non strenuous” yoga positions act upon certain parts of the body in an interrelated manner.
However when done together, they work in harmony to create a situation where improved flexibility is attained relatively easily.
3. Complete Detoxification
By gently stretching muscles and joints as well as massaging the various organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body.
This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny as well as providing nourishment up to the last point.
This leads to benefits such as delayed ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life.
4. Muscle Toning & Strength
Yoga tones muscles that have become flaccid & weak by stimulating them repeatedly to shed excess flab & fat.
Therefore by doing yoga regularly not only will you get stronger but you can also expect to see increased muscle tone in the form of long, lean muscles.
Many yoga postures require you to support the weight of your own body and to move slowly in and out of poses which improves strength.
5. All Organs of the Body Get Massaged
Yoga is perhaps the only form of activity which massages all the internal glands and organs of the body in a thorough manner, including those – such as the prostate – that hardly get externally stimulated during our entire lifetime.
Yoga acts in a wholesome manner on the various body parts.
This stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning at the first possible instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder.
6. Better Breathing Techniques
Most of us breathe fairly shallowly and don’t give much thought to how deep or how shallow we breathe with the consequence that we deprive our bodies of that precious oxygen & all the benefits that come with it.
By practicing yoga breathing techniques & exercises, called Pranayama, you start focusing your attention on the simple task of breathing properly with each breath.
Furthermore certain types of breathing can calm the central nervous system, help clear the nasal passages as well as improve other respiratory problems.
7. Mental Benefits
- Mental Calmness – Whilst the yoga asana practice is intensely physical, concentrating so intently on what your body is doing has the effect of bringing a calmness to the mind. Practicing yoga also introduces you to meditation techniques, such as concentrating on your breathing and disengaging from any distracting thoughts, which helps calm the mind enormously.
- Stress Reduction – Because of the concentration required to practice yoga properly, the daily stresses of life seem to become insignificant, whilst the mind concentrates on getting the body to adopt the correct yoga position. This activity helps arrange stressful & worrying thoughts into perspective as, with the help of yoga, you learn not to dwell on the past or worry about future events.After trying a yoga class you are sure to feel significantly less stressed than before you started……remember less stress = healthier body & better temperament
- Body Awareness – Doing yoga will give you an increased awareness of your own body which will in turn make you aware of holding correct postures which will help improve body alignment and therefore improve the level of comfort in your own body.The benefits you will get from a better posture are both an improved feeling of well being and greater self confidence.
8. Spiritual Benefits
- When it comes to yoga, spirituality is not only to do with god but also with the soul or inner consciousness.
- Whilst most people seek the physical, mental as well as the emotional benefits of Yoga, there is no denying the fact that the spiritual benefits of practicing yoga are the most fulfilling and the longest lasting.
- Healing of the body, psyche and soul is one of the basic directions in the yogic activity and serves the whole psycho-biological and spiritual restoration.
One of the amazing benefits of yoga is the uncanny sense of awareness that it develops of an impending health disorder or infection which enables the subject to take corrective action.
Whilst the above enormous benefits are an incredible result of practicing yoga the true value of doing yoga is that it places the mind and body in harmony which results in real quantum benefits.
It is no secret that the will of the mind has enabled people to achieve extraordinary physical feats, which proves beyond doubt the mind and body connection and that the body’s limits are only contained in the mind.