Feb 06 2010
Balance Yoga for a Healthy Body, Mind & Spirit
I started writing this article to sum up the health benefits of yoga, but soon realized that the list of benefits would be a million miles long. I wouldn\’t be able to do the subject justice in a short article that sums up the general benefits of yoga. In fact, the minute I started researching the topic and saw the massive amount of posititive effects on your body and mind that yoga can make, it made me want to run out to class right away even just to have that moment of elation just as I leave the yoga studio with my body exausted and my mind at ease.
Lets start with the most obvious. Flexibility. Of course this is going to improve with the practice of yoga. Your tight muscles will hold you back at first and even protest most of the way through your first few classes, but soon you\’ll start to feel them give in and work with you. You\’ll be able to feel your deep breathing allow your muscles to relax further and further into the stretch. Over time you won\’t believe what your muscles are capable of and you\’ll be craving getting deeper into each pose than in your previous practice.
One of the things that is most challenged when beginning a yoga practice for the first time is your strength. Most poses require you to hold up your own body weight and move from pose to pose with controlled muscle movements. Yoga won\’t make you bulky, but it will give you a toned, strong and defined look. Come on, don\’t we all want to look like Madonna! Well, maybe even a quarter as toned as Madonna might be good enough. At first even the most basic poses, like a simple down dog, will make your shoulders burn. Over time your body will adjust and your muscles will better be able to support your weight. You\’ll get long, lean and toned too!
Another physical benefit you\’ll achieve in yoga is that you\’ll begin to really breathe.
Many yoga followers live by the saying of Hatha Yoga Pradipika, \”When the Breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the Breath is still, so is the mind still.\”
Breathing is a normal everyday thing that if we\’re lucky, we don\’t have to think much about. When you practice yoga, you are also in training to fully breath deeply and consciously. It is believed that yoga breathing gets more oxygen to your brain and your blood. You fully use your lungs in a way that you don\’t with normal unconscious breathing.
For more information on The Health Benefits of Balance Yoga, please visit this Balance Yoga Site