Why Practice Yoga

There are plenty of activities that assist self-development.  You can attend dance classes, practice martial arts, go to the gym or just watch educational programmes on the internet.  You choose.  Each of these activities has its own benefits.  So why choose yoga among all this variety?  Here are the reasons:

1.     Yoga benefits your body

-     Improved posture.  The difference between yoga and other forms of exercise is that the movements are executed conscientiously and don’t cause muscle spasms.  Yoga practice includes strength building asanas and asanas to stretch and relax the body.  The practice gradually elongates and tones the muscles, which play an important part in creating a toned body.  By doing the asanas correctly, you strengthen the muscles, get rid of tension and improve your posture.

-       Massage of internal organs.  Doing yoga asanas you literally massage your internal organs.  Here twisting asanas are especially beneficial: the abdominal organs are stretched and squeezed in turn.  The result – improved digestion and the function of the kidneys and liver (vital organs, that cleanse and filter the blood of toxins and waste).

-      Benefit for the back.  Twists are also very beneficial for the spine.  Doing twisting asanas creates compression of the spine, which improves blood supply.  Asanas strengthen the torso muscles, improve flexibility and elongate the spine, which creates space between the spine and allows you to minimise pressure on the disks and to restore them.  Thus yoga helps to treat chronic pain in the lower back, which with age starts bothering even those, who live an active lifestyle.

-      Benefit for the figure.  Yoga really helps to regulate the weight (it normalises the level of cortisol, the hormone that causes a massive appetite during stress).  It is also widely acknowledged that yoga helps to get rid of bad eating habits.

It is difficult to find a part of the body that is not positively affected by yoga.  But it is important to approach the practice conscientiously, according to the Ahimsa principle – not causing harm, to others or to your own body.

2.     Benefits for psychological health.  Our physical body is connected with our psyche.  All strong emotions and especially, psychological traumas leave their trace in our body.  Regular practice gradually releases the body from the tension, and as a result release of subconscious emotional blocks as well.  Opening the chest, we gradually allow ourselves to freely show our emotions, and become more compassionate.  Practicing Shavasana we calm our nervous system and release worrying thoughts.

3.     Increase of vital/life energy (Prana). A lot of people often notice that after yoga practice their energy is increased and tiredness is gone.  Those who practice Pranayama know that after those exercises the effect is even stronger.

4.     Calming of the mind.  A restless mind is one of the main problems we face today.  The practice of concentration helps to focus the mind.  When our attention is distracted and switches from one object to the other, we don’t do the tasks with full energy,  There is an expression; our attention is where our energy is.  We can send our energy to one channel only when we are fully fodussed, and this then allows us to do our tasks with maximum effectiveness.

5.     Yoga helps to find connection with yourself. The possibility to hear yourself is one of the main aims of yoga.  All our lives we listen to our parents, teachers, media.  In the middle of this hectic life it is difficult to stop and think of what you really want.  Is this job or profession for me?  Am I moving in the right direction?  Yoga practice, and especially internal practice, such as concentration and meditation, allow us to stop, to go deep inside ourselves and find the answers to the questions that worry us.