How Yoga Can Help You to Feel Better
In today’s busy society, we need something to make us feel and become better, something away from the usual toxic stuff.
Many people have practiced and adopted yoga to retreat from their stressful, busy, and chaotic lives.
Whether doing the downward dog in your local park or on a yoga mat in your living room, yoga provides physical, spiritual, and mental benefits.
In more recent times, yoga has been portrayed as a bunch of physical poses. However, many have yet to consider its disciplinary and contemplative practices including chanting, meditation, prayer, mantra, ritual, breathwork, and even selfless actions.
Yoga means “to bind,” “to yoke,” or “to connect.” As such, yoga should be viewed as a way to connect your body, mind, and spirit. An alignment that will have tremendous benefits to your life and definitely help you to be better.
Understanding yoga
As we mentioned above, yoga means a union between spirit, mind, and body.
This connection allows you to experience a deep state of self-realization, peace, and freedom.
More so, it’s a place of discovery and connecting your body that encompasses proper stretching techniques, balance, meditation, breathing, and spirit and mind centering.
Additionally, yoga ignores the philosophy of “no gain without pain” that is rife through the fitness communities. Yoga is a non-harming philosophy and practice.
Types of yoga
There are many types of yoga. We will mention just a few below of some of the more popular types.
Vinyasa Yoga
It includes yoga poses like a sun salutation sequence. Additionally, during Vinyasa Yoga practice, you flow between the poses continuously instead of holding the pose, thus boosting your breathing and heart rate.
Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga shares almost the same elements as Vinyasa Yoga, like breathing and flowing movement style, but it has more set pose sequences, making it more of a meditation yoga. This means it has additional mental health benefits.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha encompasses many different styles of yoga poses, and holding your poses for more extended periods, usually over a minute.
You may perform Hatha Yoga when lying down, sitting, and standing, and since you are holding them for a more extended period, it can help improve your balance and build strength.
Iyengar Yoga
Iyengar yoga includes holding your poses for longer and some physical props like yoga straps and blocks.
Iyengar Yoga emphasizes body alignment and accommodates those with physical limitations. More so, it’s an excellent option for those without full mobility.
Hot Yoga
Hot yoga comprises a more rigid sequence, and it involves completing two sets of 26 poses in a room with a temperature of 104 °F heat.
While some may find it intimidating, many who practice hot yoga find it very rejuvenating. The heat plus yoga poses may also help improve flexibility and loosen muscles.
Benefits of Yoga
Some of the ways that yoga helps you to be better include:
It builds your full-body strength
Building your strength doesn’t have to happen solely in weight training or gym workouts; it can happen through yoga. You can adapt the resistance training through yoga poses, which include using your body weight as a resistance.
For example, yoga poses like Chaturanga help build upper body core and strength and the warrior pose improves your lower body strength, quads, hamstrings, and glutes.
You can opt for more vigorous yoga styles like Hatha and Vinyasa to help build your strength and muscular endurance while practicing it within your level.
Yoga regulates your nervous system’s response
Yoga helps balance the autonomic nervous system, which controls our breath, heart, and other body functions that keep us healthy and alive.
With yoga, you can easily regulate the two parts of this system: the sympathetic, which helps to energize our bodies, and the parasympathetic, which aids in healing the body.
It’s good for the heart
Practicing yoga reduces stress levels and other wide ranges of body inflammations, thus contributing to healthier hearts. Heart diseases may occur due to excessive weight and high blood pressure.
Yoga helps your body to regulate your blood pressure, thus lowering the risks associated with hypertension.
Yoga also improves lipid profiles, thus lowering cholesterol levels and preventing coronary artery disease.
Yoga is a stress reliever used in cardiac rehabilitation programs to keep stress levels in check.
Help in weight loss
Yoga aids in burning body fat as it increases your aerobic activity and may help you be more mindful of your calorie intake.
To safely lose weight, it’s vital to be within your calorie deficit appropriate for your age, weight, height, lifestyle, and exercise habits to maintain muscle mass. A calorie deficit happens when your body consumes fewer calories forcing your body to use more fat for fuel. Yoga and calorie deficit through nutrition may help you achieve your weight loss target.
Helps in reducing depression and anxiety
Depression and anxiety has increased significantly due to the stress associated with modern living. Stress makes our mental and physical being tense up. As such, during our fight with stress, our bodies respond by activating the adrenaline rush, thus releasing cortisol, which increases our heart rate.
Practicing yoga, which includes breathing techniques, meditation, and poses, may reduce symptoms associated with anxiety and depression.
Yoga also builds stress resilience. It helps balance the blood released in our muscles and the heart rate to tune in with the rest of our nervous system and start recovering, restoring, and repairing functions, thus preventing stress from affecting our bodies.
Alleviates sleep issues
Insomnia is a real and pervasive issue in our modern society. Consistent lack of sleep affects many. This happens due to not calming the nervous system down before bedtime.
Yoga calms your nervous system since it focuses on mindfulness, thus boosting your sleeping hormone melatonin. This improves the quality and duration of your sleep.
Yoga helps you to become more mindful
Practicing yoga increases mindfulness, enabling you to focus on your present feeling without judging yourself or the situation.
As such, you become more aware of the following:
Your bodily cues, including hunger, tiredness, and pain
Emotional cues such as anger, happiness, joy, nervousness
The emotions of others, allowing you to practice patience, empathy, and kindness
Situational awareness, which allows you to better assess danger, read a room, or simply navigate around others.
Final thoughts on how yoga can help you be better
Yoga is superb for your overall health.
Moving regularly, connecting to yourself, becoming more mindful, connecting your body with your breath, discovering your inner feelings, and potentially being able to alleviate depression, anxiety, and insomnia anywhere and anytime is super exciting.
Roll out your yoga mat, calm down, and connect with your body, soul, and spirit. Namaste!
Author: Purity Evans Bio: Purity Evans is a content specialist who works closely with New Jersey Personal Injury Lawyers, Aiello Harris, exploring many topics including healing modalities, exercise, and emotional wellbeing. When not exploring legal aspects of injury, you can find her doing yoga at her local studio, hiking local trails and gardening.
