YOGA AND ITS BENEFITS

"Yoga" or "Yog" is a small term that can motivate you to follow a healthy lifestyle and can give you a life of your dreams i.e., a life without any worries or physical pain! "Yoga" is an English word whereas people call it "Yog" in hindi. The person who teaches yoga is called "Yogi".Yoga is a word from sanskrit language that means"union" or "discipline".  That means when you perform yoga, you should be in a discipline position to find your inner self.

Yoga is a breathing exercise in which one learns to control movement of different organs of body and connects body with soul. It helps in emptying your mind and helps in interacting with your inner peace that is very beneficial in removing all the toxic things from your life. It is a very popular excercise for connecting body and your soul. The balance between your body and soul can be connected through yoga. It is also an excercise through which all the elements of body get linked through the mind with the help of meditation and helps you to relax and calm. 

Yoga was anciently founded by the Hindus and the Buddhists. Basically, it was founded in India and spread like a wildfire throughout the globe! In ancient times, only yogis performed yoga but now it has become very popular in western countries too. Nowadays, most of the people do yoga to connect their mind with their soul to lead a healthy life. And today, yoga has become very famous among all the people and every 21st June people celebrate "International Yoga Day" all around the globe. 

Since yoga has so many benefits for our health and mind, let us have a look on its major benefits that can help you to make your life better. 

1. Increases flexibility : 

Increasing flexibility in your body is one of the first and foremost thing that yoga can do for you. It is obvious that when you perform yoga, your muscles stretches and helps you to become more flexible than before. When you first try a yoga pose that is bit hard, for example touching your hands on toes standing straight without any knee bend. You will find it difficult to do in starting. But when you start performing it daily, eventually seemingly impossible poses will also become possible. You can also try beginners yoga poses in starting and can then go to big difficult yoga poses. Increasing flexibility in your body also helps to eases your joint and muscle pains. Whereas inflexiblilty in muscles and tissues can also cause poor sitting or standing posture. 

2. Increases blood circulation : 

Yoga also boosts the red blood cells and your haemoglobin which carry oxygen to tissues. The relaxation excercises that you do in yoga can help in your circulation, especially in hands and feets. It thins blood by making platelets less sticky and decrease the level of clot promoting proteins. This can decrease the risks of heart attack, since blood clots are often a cause of these silent killers. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells whuch functions better in your body. Moreover, it can also helps in dealing with menstrual cramps and irregular periods that women are suffering from by improving blood circulation in their body. 

3. Makes you happier : 

Doing yoga can also helps in curing depression and makes you feel better and happier. It lead to the increase in serotonin levels (happiness) and a decrease in monoamine levels (sad feelings) [serotonin and monoamine are enzymes that are found in neurotransmitters of brain] and eventually makes you feel better than before. Yoga is a practice of working with physiological and physical levels of your body together. Yoga postures are combined with deep breathing which helps in deep relaxation and comfort which keeps stress at bay and make you feel happy. Once you start consistent yoga, you will imagine that you are feeling fresh, displined, a little bit more carefree and little bit more stressed free which eventually leads to happy and healthy life. 

4. Helps in concentration : 

Those who do regular yoga are free from negativity and thoughts and are surrounded by more positive vibes. Yoga helps to calm your mind and senses and also helps in mental clarity. A calm mind is able to focus and concentrate better on everything.  A research also found that people who do regular yoga are more focused towards achieving their goal or are more focused in each and everything. Their memory also become sharp and their IQ levels are high. The only reason is that they are not distracted by their thoughts, their minds are not filled with all the worries, stress, frustration that are roaming around them. 

5. Helps in weight loss : 

Yoga is also associated with slow yet effective weight loss. Yoga combined with a balanced diet (such as whole grains, sprouts, nuts, seeds, boiled green veggies, fresh fruits) may help you reach your goals of getting a small waist and fit body. It not only helps in making you slimmer and fitter but also helps in boosting your body's metabolism and also strengthens your muscles. You can lose belly fat with the help of yoga. Basic stretches and different asanas or poses (like Surya Namaskar, Plank, Dhanurasana) can help you lose belly fat. 

6. Gives you better sleep :

Another by-product of yoga is a better and deep sleep. It has the ability to lower the cortisol levels and tension by which you will be less stressed and feel less tired which in result will give you a better and healthy sleep. Stretching which is done in yoga not only relaxes you, but it also keeps your muscles flexible so you are less likely to experience discomfort during everyday activities, and doing it before bed can greatly impact and benefit the sleep your body gets throughout the night.

7. Helps in nurturing your relationships :

Regular yoga can help you in developing friendliness, compassion and empathy with your loved ones or with the people with whom you spending your most of the time. Through yoga practice, you become more sensitive to yourself such as listening to your body, noticing your thoughts, paying attention to your breath. And when you develop an intimate connection with yourself then you are more available to others. Yoga also helps you to open your heart to love. When you open or release your body while practicing it, you also open your heart and opening your heart is a very powerful way to open yourself for giving and receiving more love, joy and prosperity in life. It can help you to become more open-hearted so that you can become more open in connecting with people.

8. Gives you peace of mind :

Yoga slows down all the mental loops of unhealthiness. By this, it can reduce your almost all your stress problems and you will be cured from so many mental problems like depression, insomnia, headache, high blood pressure, migraine, anger, fear, anxiety, frustration, etc. The focus on deep breathing and stretching your body is effective for relieving the symptoms of depression such as sleep troubles, pain and loss of energy. For instance yoga during times of stress, you can quickly do some breathing that will reduce stress in the nervous system and make your mind full of peacefulness and calmness. 

9. Improves your posture :

Poor body posture can cause you body pain like back pain, neck pain and other muscles or joint problems. Yoga can also help improving your sitting or standing posture. It stretches your body completely and strengthens your spine, thigh, abdominal and other muscles which can improve your body postures. By practicing Balasana (Child's pose), Trikonasana (Triangle pose), Naukasana (Boat pose) or Dhanurasana (Bow pose) you can make body posture better and attractive than before.

10. Reduces menstrual pain : 

Yoga poses such Knee-to-Chest pose relaxes the lower back and abdominal muscles which relieves tension, anxiety and also reduces pain. Yoga takes the pressure off the abdominal muscles and relaxes it and also improves blood circulation and the reproductive system through which women can experience fewer cramps and less pain. Practicing yoga 5 days in a week can also helps in irregular periods and heavy bleeding.

11. Betters bone health :

Yoga is no different from jogging, walking or playing tennis. While jogging, walking or playing games your muscles and bones strengthens. But unlike some other weight bearing activities, yoga won't damage your cartilage and stress your joints. Instead of that, it lengthens muscles and pull muscles on the bone that can help in bone strength. Yoga can actually increase bone density if done consistently and properly. The push and pull between the muscles and bones causes the body to produce more bone making cells making the bone density stronger.

12. Improves heart rate :

When your heart rate is in proper range there is less risk of heart attack and depression. Yoga practice causes the body to become more stronger and flexible and also strengthens muscles. The heart, which is a muscle also becomes stronger. Yoga  improves the efficiency of heart muscle and with this improved efficiency, the heart is able to pump a greater volume of blood with each heartbeat which means fewer heartbeats are needed per minute. The heart pumping can become more efficient after yoga and improved conditions of heart can reduce the risks of heart diseases.

13. Maintains blood pressure : 

Yoga can also help in lowering your blood pressure or bringing blood pressure at normal. Low blood pressure can be caused due to low blood volume, anaemia, hear problems, hormonal changes, etc. Whereas high blood pressure can be caused by hypertension. Yoga can help in improving the blood flow in body, thus alleviates low blood pressure. An ayurvedic balanced diet combined with yoga can speed up the process of normalising the blood pressure. Different yoga asanas such as Balasana (Child's pose), Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend pose) can improve the blood flow to the brain and relieves stress and fatigue and calms the brain which can help in bringing yhe blood pressure to normal. 

14. Improves digestive system :

Yoga, like any other physical excercise can ease constipation, bloating that is caused by trapped gas and other digestion problems. The moving body facilitates more faster transport of food and waste products. The twisting poses in yoga such as Revolved Triangle pose, Head to Knee pose, Noose pose, etc. may be more beneficial in getting waste to remove from the system. Certain yoga poses can helps you in releasing air and aids in relaxation throughout the body especially your bowels and intestines which can also help in passing gas or bloating. 

15. Increases self-esteem and gives inner strength :

Yoga can help you in make changes in your life. After regular yoga practice, you start to eat better, make good decisions, excercise more which can help you in giving strengthening your body. And also, many of us suffer from low self-esteem. People handle their low self-esteem with all the negative things such as take drugs, alcohol but they don't understand that they are risking their life physically, mentally and spiritually for some temporary sake. If you take positive approach and yoga, you can access a different side of yourself with self examination and betterment. You will experience feelings of gratitude, empathy, compassion and forgiveness as well as it will make you feel that you are a part of something big. 

*That's it for today's article. Thank you for reading. Hope you like it and don't forget to relax your body and mind with doing mind-body workout called yoga!*