Sabado, Setyembre 6, 2014

The Universal Appeal of Yoga

Yoga has been practiced for 400 years and is a system of exercises which are very easy and effective at increasing a persons overall health ad well-being.  Yoga instructors and students alike will often talk about phrases like "being in harmony with oneself and surroundings" and indeed this is a primary goal of Yoga, to achieve a unity of body, mind and spirit in a oneness with the world around us.  Yoga will teach a person to stimulate internal organs including the likes of the prostate, which is practically never exercised by any other discipline.  It will teach you to apply pressure upon glandular areas of the body and it will combine this with meditation and breathing techniques that will grant you the ability to turn your concentration inward to examine your feelings and thoughts.

  There are a number of different aspects in Yoga, but one of the most appealing is that this is a set of exercises that anyone can enjoy and benefit from.  It does not require any expensive equipment or a special setting, it can be practiced by anyone, man or women, rich or poor, young or old, healthy or ill.  Perhaps it's greatest appeal has always been that it is a set of beneficial exercises that anyone can do at any time and in any place.  Yoga is even a safe form of exercise for pregnant women and prenatal Yoga classes are often recommended to expectant mothers.  A specially tailored prenatal yoga class will help prepare a women, physically and mentally to become a mother.  It gives her a number of useful tools for coping with labour and the strengthening of the body means that the recovery period after giving birth will be much shorter.

  There is a preconception amongst many men that Yoga is a female pastime, but this couldn't be further from the truth.  Yoga provides numerous benefits to men:  decreasing stress, assisting in relaxation and increasing power, stamina and flexibility across the board.  

  Senior citizens can get a number of benefits from a yoga course and are often the first to praise the mental advantages such as an increased attention span and a better memory both long and short term.

  Even young children will benefit from a Yoga regime by stronger bones, increased circulation and a better disposition resulting from breathing exercises and the relaxation of the exercise.

  Regardless of the person Yoga has a number of lasting benefits and will aid in a wide variety of different health issues.  Regular practitioners of yoga will live an overall enhanced lifestyle, are more likely to have a strong memory and better stamina combined with a stronger sense of balance.  Even late starters can use Yoga to combat a range of health disorders from Blood pressure to arthritis to breathing orders.

  It's no wonder when you consider all the different benefits of Yoga how very popular it is, and the fact that it is a regime of exercise that is open to everyone is one more big advantage of it.  It means that families can stay fit and healthy together and include everyone from the youngest child through to the oldest family members.  The exercises can be performed at varying levels of difficulty and intensity, which means that two people at completely different levels of strength and flexibility can go through the same motions and both benefit.

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Using Yoga for Weigh loss

In today's society carrying excess weight is becoming the norm rather than the exception.  Lifestyles are increasingly sedentary, peoples diet is becoming increasingly processed and fatty and food contains more and more calories, additives and preservatives.  Children prefer television over playing with their friends, which is perhaps a direct reflection on parents who prefer television over socializing or even making time for their children.  This only scratches the surface of the social move towards a sedentary and unhealthy society which is making more and more people fat.  

  Yoga is a discipline designed to make the body strong and flexible and enhance the overall health of the digestive system as well as the hormonal and circulatory systems.  It also assists us in controlling mental stress and achieving peace and clarity of mind.  Yoga also has strong spiritual benefits which will see you becoming more content with yourself and more comfortable with who you are, all aspects which will lead to emotional stability.  This mental component is often neglected in a physical approach to weight loss, but it is critical and should not be overlooked.  So called "Comfort food" is a frequent problem for people who yo-yo diet(rapidly lose and gain weight) and the ability to be happy with your health and who you are reduces the need for this.

  Yoga is based on deep and controlled breathing which is a method for enhancing our oxygen intake.  This allows oxygen to travel to the fat cells in our body and assist in their processing.  One has to ask given the benefits why more people don't practice Yoga?

  Many people think of Yoga as a passive or mystical discipline - something for hippies - not them.  This is a shame as Yoga improves the physical body as well as our mental health.  While it is practiced by a great many people in Eastern Populations only about 2% of the population in the United States has clicked on to the many benefits.

  Yoga considers all the aspects that contribute to obesity - not just the physical but also the mental and spiritual reasons behind them.  regular Yoga is not only relaxing but it does bring the body back towards it's ideal weight and at the same time enhance strength, flexibility and stamina.  Yoga nuts tend to end up slim, agile and efficient in everything they do and what's more it is suitable for people of all ages.

  A more active form of Yoga, Kundalini, was introduced to America in 1969 by Yogi Bhajan.  It is a more active form of Yoga combining different methods of breathing, meditation and movement to compensate for the fact the American population has been conditioned to see exercise as requiring sweating.

  Yoga can also be used to resist the temptation of snacking between meals.  techniques learned from yoga can be used to suppress impulses such as that we think of as hunger between meals(if you eat proper meals you cannot be hungry between them - merely bored or restless).  

  Yoga is not just a method of losing weight, it is actually a method which restores a natural balance to our body and moves us towards our natural state.  This has an interesting consequence with weight.  It we are overweight then yes, regular Yoga will cause us to lose weight.  However if we are at our ideal weight we will not drop weight, and if we weight too little we will gain weight until we are at our biologically natural size.
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