In this article, I will share with you 10 yoga benefits.
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Practicing yoga has many great benefits, physically and mentally. In the paragraphs below, I will share with you what these benefits are and why you too should become a yoga practitioner. But first…
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a mind-body practice and a spiritual science of self-realization. It is a practical aid and an ancient act, based on developing the mind, body, and spirit, with historical origins in ancient Indian philosophy.
It is the spiritual elevation with a touch of an unrevealed element, which gives you a sneak peek of something above all imagination.
Yoga brings about the emotional stability of the mind. The various styles of yoga combine physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation or relaxation.
Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root (‘Yuj’), meaning (‘to unite’), it can be traced back long before the first religions. Scientist discovered the development of yoga over 5,000 years ago, but some researchers believe that yoga may be up to 10,000 years old or even more.
The benefits of yoga are commonly thought to be only at the physical level, but yoga is so much more than just a physical activity. Yoga practices are capable of bringing together the body and the mind — allowing us to breathe the way nature has intended us to breathe. Below are ten benefits of yoga.
1. Yoga improves your concentration and focus
Correct practice of yoga asana requires immense physical concentration. Through a proper yogi, you learn to bring your focus to your breath and move through a sequence of poses. Breathing correctly and deeply brings an awareness to your body. The increased awareness helps to greatly improve your ability to focus on a task.
2. Yoga reduces your anxiety
It is scientifically proven that you can reduce your anxiety by engaging in mindfulness practices. Mindfulness practices help to revitalize the neural paths in our brain. Yoga is one such practice that has core mindfulness and meditative elements. It helps you to relax the brain and see the problem for what it is without thinking mindlessly. And when our mind stops wandering mindlessly and come to a balanced peaceful state, anxiety is gone naturally.
3. Yoga calms your mind
As you improve your concentration through yoga practice, it also helps to increase your level of understanding of the present moment — freeing yourself from the captivity of thoughts about the past and the future. Clarity and calmness of the mind are often developed when we release the chaotic thoughts that affect our everyday lives. The ability to focus on the present moment also helps to release us from the stress from work or our daily life.
4. Yoga develops your strength
Yoga is a complementary partner to weight lifting or strenuous exercises to develop greater strength. If you seek to increase your strength through yoga, Vinyasa is one of the best yoga practices that help you all the necessary exercise you will need to develop your strength, build your muscles, and helps you support your body weight. There are also many yoga poses that aim at improving your core muscles. In fact, many popular exercises trace their roots back to yoga.
5. Yoga improves flexibility of your body
I believe this a commonly-known benefit — yoga helps to improve your flexibility. It helps you to learn how to bring yourself to different stretches and possess within yoga teachings. Flexibility also flushes out infections and the free flow of blood all around the body. I myself have benefited from yoga in this area, I was having problem bending down to touch my feet with my hands before I started practicing Yoga, now I can do so much more easily.
6. Yoga improves your balance
Yoga helps to balance both your mental and physical self. To hold a balanced state in yoga, it is advisable to gaze more on rest. This movement also helps to develop a proper balance both as you enter the pose and as you hold yourself there while softening on a point of focus.
7. Yoga boosts your metabolism
Yoga helps to improve your metabolism and blood circulation. Yoga is made up of different practices and poses, as you flow from one pose to another, blood circulates your inner systems with less resistance, and calories are burned off.
8. Yoga smoothens your skin
Being the biggest human organ that protects our body externally, the skin most visibly reflects the stress and malnutrition condition of the body. When practicing a more calming type of yoga like the pranayama, the body passes through a free circulation, flow and reduces the contamination of the skin.
9. Yoga toughens your body
This is another important benefit of yoga that is very vital to human. So many people in the world today face different forms of injury and pain due to one reason or the other, This is where the flexibility, balance, and nutrition helps the body and build up the muscles against injuries and skin disease.
10. Yoga improves your posture
Last but definitely not least, practicing yoga can help to improve your posture. In this digital era of computers and smartphones, so many of us screen-gazers have problems with neck pain, should pain, back pain, and who knows what kind of other pains exist because of our digital habits. Yoga can help to fix that, it does require consistent practices, but you can say bye to “text necks” or “turtle necks” by practicing yoga. Some of the yoga poses, that emphasize on the back and shoulder regions, are extremely helpful in correcting your posture and relieving pains.
In conclusion, Yoga can be very effective in developing and reaching a positive outlook in our everyday life. Aside from the physical and mental benefits, one of the best benefits of yoga is how it helps a person manage stress and perfect balance. If you are wondering should you be doing yoga, the answer is a sounding YES! Given the many benefits of practicing Yoga, and its complementary nature to other forms of exercise, you should indeed add yoga to your list of healthy habits.
