“Health is wealth. Peace of mind is happiness. Yoga shows the way!” Swami Vishnudevananda
Yoga is the union of body and mind. It includes breathing exercises, meditation, yoga poses, relaxation and proper diet. The benefits of yoga are numerous and quite a few of those have now been backed by science.
Making time to practice yoga a few times per week can make a difference when it comes to your health. Incorporating yoga into your routine can increase strength, flexibility and reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. The effect yoga has on your body is the following:
- Practising yoga helps maintain balance and boosts self-healing.
- The inverted asanas, such as shoulder stand and headstand for instance, promoting blood circulation and a stronger heart. Asanas, or yogic positions, promote health by increased mobility in the joints. They improve posture by strengthening and stretching key muscles. Asanas have a positive effect on the fascia, the muscles’ connective tissue. Muscles are elastic but fascia is plastic. That means that repetitive movements and body positions (hunching over the desk) fixes the connective tissue causing postural problems. Likewise when you hold an asana for longer than 1 minute the hardened connective tissue is remodelled and your posture returns to proper alignment.
- Yoga breathing, paranayama, helps increase the gas exchange in the lungs and in the cells of our body. Yoga emphasises voluntary breath control. During a yoga class breathing slows down to 10-12 breaths per minute and in relaxation to 6-8. During the alternate nostril breathing pranayama we just take 3-6 breaths per minute. During pranayama oxygen levels in the blood are higher. Medical research suggests that exposure to alternating high and low levels of oxygen promote cell rejuvenation and renewal of mitochondria.
- Yoga has an effect on the nervous system, keeping it in balance, and as a result one feels better prepared to deal with daily stress. Practising asanas, pranayama and meditation activates the parasympathetic nervous system, that is the ‘rest and repair’ branch of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is in charge of our ‘flight or fight’ response which is essential in the face of danger. However that is not necessary unless there is real danger and if not cancelled by the parasympathetic system those responses can damage the body and mind.
- Practising asanas helps balance the brain and, through the pituitary gland, the main endocrine gland, the whole body. Yoga teaches us to achieve deep muscle relaxation after asanas and during the autosuggestion in the final relaxation. Asanas work on many body systems simultaneously.