Imagine waking up and not feeling tired, stressed out about your long day, or hitting the snooze button five times before getting up. Instead, you feel energized and get out of bed. Sit on the floor lotus style and close your eyes. You breathe deeply in and out.
You get up and lie on your stomach. Place your hands beneath your shoulders and lift yourself up. You work from cobra pose to cat pose to child’s pose. Then you get on your hands and knees and slowly work your way up to warrior pose and downward dog.
These poses are becoming a fluent language for your body and mind. You feel so relaxed and rejuvenated after a few minutes of yoga.
You wake up, looking forward to yoga everyday. After your short yoga routine in the morning, you’re more awake and ready to take on the day. Within a week, you quickly learn that yoga impacts your life on a daily basis.
After 16 weeks, yoga has become a part of your routine. The breathing techniques you found awkward are now just an everyday habit. The stretches you found to be strenuous are now easy and relaxing. You wouldn’t call yourself a yogi but you’re getting closer everyday.
You start to see yoga’s impact on life and yoga’s impact on health. You feel better and more energized everyday. You don’t feel as stressed or uptight as you usually do.
Honestly, you haven’t felt this good in years. You’re worry free and your body no longer aches from the stress of the world.
Yogis share this philosophy all over the world because yoga makes a profound impact mentally and physically. So why not give it a try?
What Yoga Does For The Body
For the body, yoga helps with a plethora of things. Let’s start with the most obvious. Flexibility. Daily stretches reduce cartilage and joint damage because after practicing yoga your body has a higher range of motion.
People who practice yoga are also less injury-prone because muscles are strengthened and their body is more flexible.
You can also build up your strength with yoga. Poses such as warrior pose or cobra pose strengthens your legs, core, and spine.
Many yoga poses require you to inhale and exhale to stretch your muscles while holding the pose. This gives your muscles a good stretch while also building strength. A lot of yoga poses are based around the center tree pose, which also promotes better posture.
While you build up your strength, you inevitably tone your muscles. Different yoga poses tone different muscles. Because yoga uses every part of your body to complete different poses, yoga also improves bone health. These poses stretch and work muscles and bones that you normally don’t use in a traditional gym.
You’ll also become more aware of your breathing patterns with yoga. Every yoga pose is synced to your inhales and exhales.
With each inhale you move a body part farther in to the pose and with each exhale you stretch your muscles deeper. These breathing techniques help you relax and stretch your muscles without straining them.
When you do yoga regularly, you’ll have more energy. Any type of exercise that gets you moving and stretching will release endorphins. Through yoga, you’ll also find that you have a better metabolism, which leads to better weight management.
Heart health is another benefit from yoga. The different yoga poses improve blood flow because many yoga poses put you in headstand positions without over exerting your arm muscles.
Plus, yoga poses also work as a gentle cardio workout too because when you hold various yoga poses, the stretches and muscle work increase your heart rate.
Yoga also increases your immune health. Better blood flow from stretching muscles, going upside down, and sideways supports the production of white blood cells, which fight against disease.
Yoga does a lot for your body but it can also help with your mind. Yoga helps you de-stress, reduce pain, sleep better, stay focused, and gain a more positive mindset.
What Yoga Does For The Mind
Dr. Nevin from Osteopathic Medicine says,
“Stress can uncover itself from multiple points of view, including back or neck torment, dozing issues, cerebral pains, tranquilize misuse, and a powerlessness to focus. Yoga can be extremely successful in creating adapting aptitudes and arriving at a progressively inspirational point of view. Standard yoga practice makes mental lucidity and serenity; expands body mindfulness; relieves chronic stress patterns; relaxes the mind; centers attention; and sharpens concentration since they can help with early discovery of physical issues and take into account early preventive activity.”
Yoga helps you de-stress by having you focus on your breaths. The time you spend concentrating on your breathing helps clear your mind and relax your muscles.
When your mind is de-cluttered, you’ll be able to focus better and see things in a new light. A big part of yoga is a meditation period, which helps you reflect on your day and gain a better perspective on various situations. Yoga also reduces pain and helps you sleep better because it stretches all your muscles and gives you a good workout.
The inquiry you're posing to now is: "The thing that what would yoga be able to accomplish for me?" Well, check it out and discover the benefits of yoga.
My Yoga Story
After 16 weeks, I’m more flexible, energized, and relaxed than I’ve been in years. Before yoga, I woke up more tired than when I went to sleep. I hated the sound of my alarm and hit the snooze button at least five times every morning.
I just couldn’t get myself out of bed. But after I started doing yoga, I find myself happy to get up in the morning. I like laying out my yoga mat and doing a few quick stretches before my morning coffee.
By the time I get to my emails at 8AM, my mind feels clear and ready to take on the day. When 9AM rolls around, I’m ready for work and actually enjoy my ride their, because I sing-a-long to the radio and dance at the stoplights.
Not only do I feel better about myself but I also think more positively through the day. Little things don’t stress me out anymore. The daily reflection time I gained from doing yoga has really helped me de-stress and de-clutter my mind.
At work, I’m less distracted and at home, I’m more relaxed. With yoga, I’m able to sleep better and stay focused longer. I can get things done more efficiently and not sweat the small stuff.
Yoga has genuinely completely changed myself to improve things. I cut my TV time a bit shorter, so I can incorporate my yoga routine in to my daily schedule. At first, 30 minutes seemed like a lot of time to spend on a yoga mat.
Now, the 30 minutes I spend completing my 12 daily poses is my favorite part of the day.
Even when I don’t have time to complete my 12 poses, I’ll take five minutes to complete three poses and leave a minute at the end for meditation. Sometimes five minutes is all you need to clear your mind and stay focused for the rest of the day.
That’s my yoga story, what’s yours going to be?
Samantha Palmer is a senior content developer and a blogger who loves to share her views on diverse topics. She holds great knowledge and experience of creative writing and is currently associated with a renowned media publishing company Peace Quarters.
