Why Practicing Yoga is Beneficial to Your Health
In this article, you will discover the benefits of yoga and how it can change your life. I will also tell you how Yoga improves your muscle tone, your self-esteem and the ability to overcome anxiety and depression.
Are you ready?
Humans today are always in a hurry, don’t stop, and always “don’t have time”.
But there is good news. The Yoga community has continued to grow as more and more people learn the amazing benefits and who decide to stop and take a pause to embrace what is around them.
Today it is more and more widespread. Perhaps in a certain sense, it is also a bit of a trend, if you do yoga you are more "cool". But it is welcome to be when the result is good for yourself and your health.
That's right, the benefits of Yoga are innumerable, both physical and mental. I don't know if you do Yoga or not, but after this article, I assure you that you will have excellent reasons to try or deepen your practice.
“If only people knew how good the body can feel,” said a wise old man.
And there is nothing truer! But let's go specifically.
What does the word Yoga mean?
Yoga means UNION: of Mind, Body, and Soul.
If the mind is fine, the body is fine, and vice versa. It may seem obvious to you, but it is absolutely not.
Yoga is also a spiritual discipline, which concerns our interiority, our essence, our being.
The practice obviously includes physical exercises (ASANA), breathing exercises (PRANAYAMA) and meditation.
But what are the Benefits of Yoga?
What can a practice performed with only a mat give you?
"If you think yoga is all about touching your toes or balancing on your head, it means you are missing out on most of its gifts and beauty."
Physical Benefits
How Yoga Can Make You Lose Weight, Improve Muscle Tone, and Gain Greater Balance
Let's see how Yoga can bring great benefits to your body.
It makes your bones stronger, without resorting to drugs. With regular practice it has been studied and confirmed that it increases bone mass, especially of the vertebrae and femur. The risk of osteoporosis and injuries is therefore reduced, in the face of better posture.
It can improve strength and tone muscles. Positions and sequences strengthen every single muscle, even the deepest and least known ones. Most affected are the abdominal and back muscles, which represent the center of your body. Yoga increases the flexibility of body and mind. Flexibility is undoubtedly one of the best known and most proven benefits of yoga. With yoga you become more flexible. Not only physically, but also mentally. More flexible towards others, but above all towards yourself.
"Flexibility is not a prerequisite of yoga, it is a benefit." And that is why you can practice Yoga even if you are not flexible at all.
The poses all you to increase your balance. The balance positions are many: standing, on one leg or on the head. With practice, stability improves considerably, your body becomes more balanced and centered in everyday life. It is precisely for this reason that Yoga can help you improve your balance in other sports as well. Physical stability is obviously connected and opposed to mental stability.
When all systems, both internal and external, are balanced, the state of health and harmony you get is indescribable. Yoga improves digestion and may allow you to lose weight. Yoga, thanks to its system of techniques, both physical and mental, also helps to rebalance the digestive system. This is made possible by positions that involve twists, inversions and the use of the abdominal and back muscles.
Postures are always performed in coordination with breathing that allows your body to detoxify with the internal organs being massaged and enriched with oxygen. In turn, oxygen allows the body to eliminate toxins AND when I talk about toxins, I'm not just referring to the physical ones! Sometimes the mental ones are even worse. Stress, bad thoughts, and worries are examples of this.
It helps you to combat and eliminate back pain. It has been widely demonstrated that one of the greatest benefits of Yoga is that, thanks to constant practice over time, it relieves or defeats back pain. It is thanks to a series of specific positions that you can keep the spine healthy, toning its muscles and improving its elasticity. Not only can also help relieve or make other pains or conditions go away.
It's good for your heart. With Yoga, we learn to breathe correctly, and the breath is the key to our health. Are you sure you can breathe correctly? The truth is, over time many of us have forgotten to breathe. Yoga is a great way to re-educate your breath. And this can improve the circulation of oxygen in the blood, bringing great benefits to the cardiovascular system.
Yoga stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which, in turn, has a calming action which allows the immune system to strengthen. This relaxing effect acts directly on the immune system by strengthening it considerably. As a result, the body fights viruses and bacteria faster, thus also clearing itself of various toxins.
Mental Benefits
How Yoga Can Reduce Anxiety and Depression, Improve Your Sleep, and Boost Your Self-Esteem.
Let's now see together some of the most famous mental benefits that Yoga can give us.
Yoga reduces anxiety and depression
Through meditation and breathing techniques, yoga helps you find better concentration. A greater awareness of the present moment is achieved, and this sharpens our ability to focus and manage stress. The practice reduces muscle tension as well as mental tension. Which, as you know, are connected. But we don't stop there. Yoga also gives awareness and clarity. A clear and aware mind makes us more capable of learning and storing new information.
Help those suffering from insomnia
Scientific studies have shown that 20 minutes of yoga a day can improve our sleep. The relaxation generated by Yoga and its techniques allows us to fall asleep much faster.
It helps you manage your emotions
With a constant practice of Yoga one becomes more and more aware of "oneself". We then learn to look at emotions with the so-called "yogic detachment". As well as the ability to observe and accept them without being overwhelmed. Too often we suffer from the events and people around us. Thanks to the awareness that is acquired, it is possible to observe these phenomena with the right emotional distance.
It, therefore, becomes easier to make clearer decisions and less conditioned by our emotions.
Personal Growth & Yoga
Have you noticed how many times I have written the word "constant practice"? It is not enough to have read this article or to decide to start a Yoga course. Discipline is the most important aspect in Yoga. Just like it is for any other goal we set ourselves.
It is no coincidence that the discipline of yoga today becomes more and more a necessity for many: constant practice helps us to find that center of immutable peace and stability that is in each of us. Experiencing this leads to living life in a totally new way and the ability to face changes firmly and calmly, which directly determines the effectiveness and results of our actions.
In this perspective, the techniques of yoga become techniques of personal growth, of incredible relevance and effectiveness to evolve internally and concretely in the world.
Since we are talking about inner peace, it is right to clarify that yoga is not a religion and as such, it cannot be opposed to any religion. The element of yoga spirituality is understood in a broad sense. Yoga is a set of techniques that help, among other benefits, to rediscover a deep contact with oneself and one's own spirituality, whatever it may be. Furthermore, the practice is good for the back, improves breathing, circulation, drains, tones and elasticizes the muscles, improves posture and brings you back in contact with the depth of yourself and the wonderful life that we are, here, now; this is personal growth.
Since the aim is not to offer simple information but concrete tools for transformation and growth. Offer yourself the opportunity to practice and experiment directly by checking in on yourself. Nobody can do it for you, you decide to give yourself this gift. Only 20 minutes a day for at least three weeks solidifies the dedication to this practice. Do not be satisfied with more or less agreeing on what you have read, do not be satisfied with accumulating more information ... GO PRACTICE YOGA NOW!
Yoga is a beautiful path and I assure you that once you start it, you will never be able to do without it.
