How Practicing Yoga Benefits Your Health?
Though the modern world’s fetish with health and weight has rendered yoga almost an equivalent to other healthcare therapeutic practices, the real Yoga-the very science of the art of Yoga is still shrouded in mystery.
Most people consider it to be nothing other than some jumble of postures, which once mastered, would give them overnight their desired weight or health In fact yoga is much more than some postures (Asana). It is a whole school of thought, a spiritual code of life. It initiates, trains, and evolves its practitioners for a spiritual lifestyle.
Most of us who have some smattering of understanding about the concepts of yoga and its multi-dimensional aspects take yoga as the de toxin, a therapy that purifies the body, mind, and soul, all side by side. No yogi should ever take up yoga just to fit in the new jeans.
An initiate has to understand, at least some of it, the logic and reason behind the very philosophy of yoga. One must realize the fact that unlike other healthcare systems yoga attempts to cleanse the body and mind from within. It aims at purifying the soul and mind, physical purity comes as a byproduct here.
The very origin and the meaning of the word yoga show the real logic and purpose of the system, the word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root Yuj meaning To Unite. Any discipline or the method that unites one with the Supreme is called Yoga
According to the Sankhya, yoga philosophy, yoga means separation (disunion, viyoga) of spirit from matter. That’s what yoga is all about -the distillation of baser materials from finer ones. Your physical well-being will be restored once the grosser elements are reduced from your spirit, mind, and body.
Yoga is a system of psychic discipline by which we can sharpen and enhance the intellect, and free the mind from the murkiness of illusions and fantasy.
The secret of yoga is inwardness, self-scrutiny, and inner cleansing. The Yoga writers introduce the concepts of the subconscious and the unconscious mind as determining instinctive tendencies, and also as showing how, by the process of yoga, the efforts of the conscious mind can dominate over the subconscious and the unconscious.
The Yoga practitioners utilize the concepts of the subconscious and the unconscious mind to determine instinctive tendencies and also show how, by the process of yoga, the efforts of the conscious mind can dominate over the subconscious and the unconscious.
Yoga is for the body, mind, and spirit. A yogi learns to use his body, breath, and mind to stretch, relax, and energize himself. Yoga helps him to take control of his body and mind and trains him on how not to succumb to their weaknesses and negativity.
Yoga is all about transcending the ordinary, the baser, and going across through the grosser layers of your being; it is about the effort to reach higher and touch deeper into your soul and getting yourself aligned with the natural course of life and nature.
It heightens your sensuous capacities and enables you to feel the life itself, along with the blood surging through your veins, the energy pulsating through your nerves, coursing through your whole being.
Benefits of Yoga
- Brings down stress and enhances powers of relaxation
- Boosts physical strength, stamina, and flexibility
- Endows greater powers of concentration and self-control
- Improves Impulse Control
- Helps in the rehabilitation of old and new injuries
- Intensifies tolerance to pain and enhances mental clarity
- Boosts the functioning of the immune system
- Enhances posture and muscle tone
- Improves blood circulation
- Results in healthy, glowing skin
- Cleanses and improves overall organ functioning
- Bestows peace of mind and a more positive outlook on life
- Infuses a sense of balance and internal harmony
Best of all, Yoga is highly therapeutic: Some of the ailments proven to be relieved, reversed, and even healed through the practice of Yoga are acidity, allergies, Alzheimer’s disease, anemia, anger, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, bronchitis, cancer, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, colitis, common cold, constipation, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, eye problems, facial wrinkles, gastrointestinal disorders, headaches, heartburn.
In addition, it is also useful in hemorrhoids, hepatitis, high blood pressure, hypertension, immune deficiency, impotence, menopause, menstrual cramps, migraines, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, nervous tension, obesity, osteoporosis, prostate, enlargement, sciatica, skin problems, sleep apnea, slipped disk, sterility, stiffness, stress, insomnia, intoxication, thyroid problems, kidney stones, stuttering, and stammering, urinary tract disorders for women, vaginal infections, and many more…
The real aim and purpose is to strike a balance among the multi-being entity that is the man: Yoga harmonizes the physical, emotional, intuitional, intellectual, astral, and ethereal beings of a man. Yoga is not about mind over body. On the other hand, Yoga is about developing harmony between them. In Yoga, you use your mind to perceive (diagnose) and guide (heal) your body. Never control, let alone force it!
Yoga is a way of life: a conscious act, not a set or series of learning principles. The dexterity, grace, and poise you cultivate, as a matter of course, is the natural outcome of regular practice. You require no major effort. In fact, trying hard will turn your practices into a humdrum, painful, or even injurious routine and will eventually slow down your progress. Subsequently, and interestingly, the therapeutic effect of Yoga is the direct result of involving the mind totally in inspiring (breathing) the body to awaken.
Contrary to popular – or unpopular – perception: Yoga positions are not about how far you can reach to touch your toes or how many repetitions you can perform. It is all about paying attention to how your body feels; how it moves without that excruciating pain or agony! Yoga is all about breathing correctly about integrating that breath into your being. Conscious Yoga does not call for you to force or strain your never or sinew. Meaning to say, right Yoga is learning how to do things right, do less that gets you more!
Yoga enhances your strength, energy, vitality, flexibility, and levels of endurance: Accordingly, your body and mind start to become more balanced until, eventually; you find it takes so much less energy to move through the day, and gradually you would realize the many of your headaches were, in fact, self-created or self-imposed. You would be able to face and embrace life with its simplicity without the baggage with which you used to drag yourself through life.
