Yoga comprises a series of body stretching exercises that enable you to get control over body and mind. Many ancient scriptures on yoga define it as a process ‘to put body in active phase’.
Yoga is not a therapy for curing specific diseases, it is designed to treat a range of health issues such as lowering high blood pressure, anxiety, stress. It enhances concentration and mental alertness. Practicing yoga helps you get good posture balance and flexibility in the body.
There are many yogic methods to follow but most of these techniques involve control over breathing, exercise and meditation. In this article, will let you know the benefits of practicing yoga.
Yoga brings in many health benefits, which we can divide into following three heads for easy understanding.
Physical health benefits
Since yoga involves movement of body along with stretching muscles and joints, it improves body fitness. People practicing yoga have a good control over their body. The major physical benefits are:
- Gives flexibility in muscle and bone movements, strengthens muscles, body-balancing, stability of abs, reduces muscle spasm, etc.
- Improves breathing capacity – especially for those suffering from breathing trouble and swimmers
- Gives relief from head ache, back ache, joint pains; it also revitalizes body
- Reduces cholesterol levels. It helps in weight loss management, regulates blood pressure, pulse-rate and heart beat
- Enhances bowel movements – increases digestion capacity
Mental health benefits
One of the major techniques of yoga is mediation. Meditation is a method of training the mind on concentrating. The benefits are:
- Enhances mood while working at home or at office
- Improves physical relaxation – controls temper, stress and anxiety, removes fear, etc.
- Improves confidence, concentration, awareness, and reduces stress
- Improves thinking ability
- Develops tendency of self-adjustment and self-discipline
Spiritual health benefits
Practicing Yoga regularly helps instill great qualities such as pleasant, emotional control, self-knowledge, belief and kindness. Spirituality is not concerned with a particular religion or god, it refers to inner consciousness. Moreover, it helps one to discover interconnectedness with nature. These qualities are long lasting and people like to foster them during their life time.
In these days of stressful life to achieve things, yoga is beneficial to your health. At the beginning, you might feel it hard to do. But with sustained practice and patience, you can. You need to spend a few minutes a day, and you will reap the benefits in the long run.