In this article, we will discuss some of the benefits of yoga and how it can change your life. I will also share how Yoga improves your muscle tone, your self-esteem and the ability to overcome anxiety and depression. I’ve been researching tools to help in these areas for a long time and now we’ll dig into yoga a bit.
Are you ready? I know that many of you are probably running around or busy with work or family and, perhaps, you will not even be able to read this article until you have “free time”.
Well, at times, I’m just like many of you, always in a hurry, a person that never stopped, that just didn’t have time. I was working long hours, raising kids, building a business, working on personal development, and trying to be a good hubby. Then I hit a wall. Things blew up. Life stopped me in my tracks. I do not recommend ending up here.
But there is good news. Certain data confirms that in the last year the Yoga boom has continued to grow, and yes, even in our country. We’ll discuss how yoga may help this burnout culture we’ve created.
In Italy data shows that every 83 seconds there is someone who buys a mat online.
As Alanis said… “Makes you think, don’t you think?”
More and more people are deciding to stop.
Maybe it is the pandemic or maybe it is burnout. Either way, stopping is good.
The desire to devote yourself to a discipline that makes you feel good can increase your joy and sustainable happiness. I know my daily meditation practice has and my regular reading habit also has.
Today yoga 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 beyond the trends this growth is welcomed data for me, when the results are good for yourself and your health.
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 the practice.
“If only people knew how good the body can feel,” said a wise old man. Ha! don’t ya love quote from wise old men? Maybe not all the time, but I hope this one strikes a chord.
And there is nothing truer! But let’s go a little more specifically into things.
What does the word Yoga mean?
Yoga means UNION: of Mind, Body, and Spirit.
If the mind is fine, the body is fine, and vice versa. It may seem obvious to you, but it is absolutely not. I started seeking exercise programs because I have been inactive for too long and I feel adding some physical activities (or more of them) would be good for me.
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.”
Here are Pantanjali’s 8 Limbs of Yoga to explore all the areas Yoga can touch and provide value in your life.
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 Yoga actually increases bone mass, especially of the vertebrae and femur.
The risk of osteoporosis and injuries is therefore reduced, in the face of better posture.
Improve strength and tone muscles.
Positions and sequences strengthen every single muscle, even the deepest and least known ones. I recall realizing how inactive I’ve been in so many areas.
Most affected are the abdominal and back muscles, which represent the center of your body. Who doesn’t need/want more core improvement.
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. I think we could all use a bit more self-compassion.
“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. I love that people of all shapes and sizes can practice as well. There are gentle and advanced yogas, you just have to find the one that best suites you.
Increase your balance. This is great especially as you age.
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. Maybe I’ll do more research on this in the future as this may be a fun topic to review.
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 makes you lose weight. I also think this would be a wonderful future article. Maybe I’ll share some ideas here in the future if you’d like.
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. Constant practice also helps you achieve your optimal weight and change your eating habits.
Detoxify your body.
Asanas (postures) are always performed in coordination with breathing. Thanks to this association, the internal organs are 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 beat 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. As someone who’s had back problems in my youth and leaned on medication and alcohol to take the edge off, this would be a much healthier approach.
Thanks to a series of specific positions, you can keep the spine healthy, toning its muscles and improving its elasticity.
Not only that, but it can also help relieve or make other pains or conditions go away. I’ve heard stories where someone avoided a meniscus operation thanks to a lot of practice and dedication.
It’s good for your heart. With heart disease as one of the biggest killers in the US, we should look into this topic pretty seriously.
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 how to breathe intentionally. 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 cardio-vascular system. This strengthens the immune system.
Yoga stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which, in turn, has a calming action. 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.
Now let’s discuss some of the most famous mental benefits that Yoga can offer. 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.
Not only that… but the practice also reduces muscle tension as well as mental tension. Which, you may know, con be 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. This can help those suffering from insomnia.
Scientific studies have shown that 20 minutes of yoga a day can improve our sleep. I don’t know about you, but I could use consistently better sleep. The relaxation generated by Yoga and its techniques allows us to fall asleep much faster. I’ll need to do more research because my biggest hang up with sleep is falling after I wake up in the middle of the night.
It helps you manage your emotions. This seems like we could benefit from more of this out in society. With a constant practice of Yoga one becomes more and more aware of “oneself”. Since mindfulness and Buddhism are practices I have seen really help in this area, I’m excited to see how Yoga might benefit or add to this awareness of self.
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.
General Benefits of Yoga:
how long does it take to manifest?
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. In meditation I always stated that if you do 10 minutes daily for 30 days, then you would be feeling so good you’d never give up a daily practice. I believe the some is true for yoga.
In this article titled: How Quickly Can Yoga Change Your Body? they say that with a formal practice under the guidance of a good yogi you can see real results in 6 to 12 weeks.
Personal growth and yoga
In this particular historical moment, of very fast and great changes in many areas and the more and more we perceive that those we considered our certainties and fixed points become more and more uncertain… it is therefore 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. Adding consistency in our lives, especially now based on all the uncertainties we deal with now due to the pandemic, this can really give us a sense of feeling in more control of things.
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 with 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… 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, if you have read this far, offer yourself the opportunity to practice and experiment directly by checking yourself! Nobody can do it for you, you decide to give yourself this gift: for you, only 10 minutes a day for at least three weeks dedicated 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!!
As you can tell, yoga is an interesting and beautiful path. Once you start it, you may never be able to do without it.
Namaste
P.S. – You may now be asking “but how do I get started? Well, the programs I found to help myself get started are first the Mindful Yoga Program which teaches 44 yoga poses and is a really great way to start learning the poses. Next you may need a sequence or flow to start putting poses together for a good session. For the newbie and or older or even disabled person you might like to start with our Gentle Chair Yoga. From there you could start getting a little more serious trying our 21-Day Yoga Challenge.
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