Understanding the Health Benefits of Yoga

The health benefits of yoga are many. You will gain more and more knowledge as you explore further. Yoga, health and fitness are a complete combination. Some of the most noticeable and immediate benefits of practicing this amazing healing art include:

Improved Flexibility and Pain Reduction

Through the performance of yoga asanas (the physical movements) the body is stretched in forward, backward, twisting and inverted movements. These movements not only improve flexibility of the muscles, but also massage the internal organs.

The compression and releasing movements of yoga allow more blood flow to the organs, increasing circulation, which rids the body of accumulated toxins, promoting better health. Yoga helps to eliminate back pain. Back pain can be debilitating. Yoga helps ease back pain by strengthening and stretching the muscles that support the spine.

Increased Physical Strength

In yoga, many of the asanas require us to support our own body weight with our arms and/or legs. It also improves core stabilization through the holding and locking of certain positions, which is hard to do with traditional strength training exercises. It increases our physical strength without the use of exercise equipment. Holding the postures greatly increases our strength and stamina.

Better Lung Capacity and Breathing - More Health Benefits of Yoga

During the physical movements of yoga, we are required to breathe with and through the moves. We learn to link the breath with the moves and learn how to expand the lungs, increasing the oxygen intake to our bodies. This allows our bodies to hold difficult positions longer and brings the life force, called Prana, into our physiology. The control of the breath and the way to achieve that control through harnessing the energy of the breath is called Pranayama.

A Healthier Heart

One of the major causes of heart problems is stress and stress related lifestyles. In yoga, we learn that through breath control known as pranayama, the mind's needless chatter can be harnessed and stopped. This in turn allows the body to respond and relax, thereby reducing the stress that can cause heart attacks, increasing the health benefits of yoga. Also, high blood pressure and anxiety can be reduced by yoga, meditation and special dietary recommendations, such as the DASH Diet.

By cultivating compassion and accessing our connection to the true Self (our highest awareness), the body will no longer be under the attack of stress and its rampant debilitating effects. For more information on how to decrease your chance of heart disease, I recommend visiting the site Preventing a Heart Attack.com to learn additional ways to have and keep a healthy heart.

Better Balance

During our balancing standing sequences, we learn how to balance on one leg at a time, focusing the eyes on a fixed point or object. This not only improves physical balance, but our mental concentration.

Relaxation

We learn through yoga to bring a sense of peace and relaxation to the body. After the physical practice, we lie down in Savasana, also known as Corpse Pose, relaxing completely from head to toe, allowing the healing benefits of our practice to become fully integrated into the body, mind and breath.

Menopausal Relief

Many women need extra help during this time. Read how including a regular yoga practice can help relieve some or all menopausal symptoms.

Less Insomnia/More Restful Sleep

The relaxation and breath control that we learn to utilize during practice can be taken off the mat and into our daily lives. For those with disruptive sleep patterns and insomnia, yoga will instill a peaceful calm and better sleep will emerge as a result of a sustained yoga practice, eliminating insomnia without the use of drugs.

For more information on How to Sleep Better, Self-Improvement-Advice.org offers self improvement advice, ideas and tips with a focus on stress and anxiety management, anger control and sleep techniques. Learn about the importance of sleep, and the SIX sleep remedies that can help you with a good night's sleep that you deserve.

Heightened Awareness and Healing of Emotional Trauma

Through the practice of yoga, our senses become more alive. We not only begin to feel our physical energy, but our psychic energy becomes more heightened. Every cell in the body becomes sensitized so that we become more aware of what we feel, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Past traumas begin to heal and we learn to listen to our internal intelligence and feel the oneness of all in existence. This can help with proper discernment and better choices that we make for our highest good, thus increasing more of the health benefits of yoga. Through our increased awareness, the body's intelligence becomes more apparent.

Along with the health benefits of yoga, it is important to become more educated in the workings of the immune system and help it along. Visit the site "How to Boost Your Immune System" for wonderful recommendations on how to achieve a strong and healthy immune system.

Causes of Burning Sensation in Knee - Learn about burning pain in knee joint treatment at this informative site.

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Some of the health benefits of yoga go beyond the physical and bring our awareness to our innermost Self and our capacity to heal at the level of consciousness.

More Resources:

Easy Senior Chair Exercise

Low-impact, safe and gentle chair yoga exercises, postures and breathing techniques will improve your quality of life no matter how old you are.

Yoga Wiz There are many different kinds of yoga and numerous health benefits of yoga. It all depends on what type of yoga you practice regularly.