Yoga is known for its great spiritual and emotional health benefits, but yoga also has many physical benefits.
Yoga: an ancient art of learning to form your body, mind, and spirit into one. Life Hack says yoga “is designed to help achieve a more positive outlook on life and a focused, permanent sense of serenity and peace.”
Yoga has great spiritual and emotional benefits, but yoga also has many physical benefits. Recently, yoga has been turned into a mainstream fitness fad. This has allowed more people to experience the many physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of yoga. While there are many, here are some big reasons you should do yoga:
Yoga offers stress relief
Stress is one of the biggest causes of illness in the world. When this stress builds up, it can have numerous negative effects on the body that will worsen if you don’t take care of them. Luckily, yoga can help you relieve some of this stress. The Yoga Health Foundation wrote, “Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol.” By doing yoga one hour a day three times a week, you can easily break down that built-up stress and feel better throughout the day.
Yoga is a great workout
Yoga uses positions and stretches that challenge the body. Where many people lift weights at the gym, yoga utilizes your body weight to create resistance and can tone your muscles while burning off lots of calories. Yoga provides various levels of intensity for beginners all the way up to advanced practitioners. It can help you become better in tune with your body as well as giving you a great workout for the day.
Yoga creates improved flexibility
There are many activities you do every day that limit your movement. Sitting for long periods of time can cause back issues, limited leg flexibility, and cause your muscles to tighten and knot up. Yoga stretches almost every muscle in your body in some way. The Yoga Health Foundation wrote, “Yoga also helps to improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.” With all of the stretches that focus on the spine and the various muscles and ligaments, it’s hard to find something that yoga cannot improve.
Yoga improves lung function
One of the most important parts of doing yoga is the focus on breathing. Every movement involves breathing, but this type of breathing is more extensive. It helps you see just how important breathing is in exercise and helping your mind become more in tune with your body. By learning these breathing techniques, your lung function will improve, and your body will use oxygen more efficiently, all while strengthening your cardiovascular fitness.
Yoga invites inner peace
At the heart of yoga is one goal. That goal is to reach moksha, or liberation. We know it as inner peace. By practicing yoga, you are freed from the stress that bogs you down and your mind, body, and spirit become one. The breathing, stretching and clearing of the mind that yoga encompasses are used to reach this goal. Yoga makes you happier, more at ease, and enables you to enjoy the present. As you attempt to reach this state, your attitude and overall outlook on life will become more positive, helping you understand that all the bad you are experiencing or will experience is temporary. Happiness is what we all strive for, and doing yoga can help you achieve that.
Yoga is an ancient art that has been mainstreamed to mass followers, but the benefits of yoga remain the same. Using these techniques will help you become more in tune with your body and help you achieve a more spiritual state. After relieving stress and experiencing some of the many benefits of yoga, your physical, mental and spiritual wellness will help you get closer to happiness and keep you in shape.
This article was originally published by The Daily Herald. It has been republished here with permission.
