In the last few articles on #benefits of #Yoga, I talked about #Pranayama and #physical benefits. As the benefits of Yoga are numerous, and I’ve experienced them more on a #psychological level, here the article #continues.
Yoga encourages you and helps you #relax, slows your #breath, and increases your #focus on the #present, shifting the #balance from the #sympathetic #nervous #system (or the #fight-or-flight response) to the #parasympathetic nervous system which is calming and #restorative.
It also lowers #cortisol levels (chronically high levels may lead to #permanent #changes in the #brain and #memory and are linked with #depression, #osteoporosis, #highbloodpressure, and #insulin resistance). In my previous blog on physical benefits of yoga https://headandheartchild.blogspot.com/2018/11/benefits-of-yoga-holistic-connection-to.html
I talked about the research done on #rats and #food-seeking behaviours. These are all linked to #mental behaviours and depression.
What I have also experienced, is that regular Yoga practice improved my #sleep #pattern, which in turn helped with #anxiety and my #mental #health. Better sleep means being less #tired and #stressed. A consistent Yoga practice improves depression and leads to a significant increase in #serotonin levels and a #decrease in the levels of #monoamine oxidase (an #enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol.
With #children (as well as adults), yoga has been fantastic in getting them to increase their #focus. Studies have found that regular yoga practice improves #coordination, #reaction time, #memory, and even #IQ scores. Children get less distracted by their thoughts, and over time increase their focus. Just imagine how much the children’s #behaviour and #learning capacity would improve if we introduced regular Yoga practice in schools?
Yoga means “unity” or “union” or ‘connection’. In Sanskrit, the word ‘yoga’ is used to signify any form of connection. The state of yoga is the experience of mind and body connection. It’s that blissful feeling after coming out of #Savasana; it’s a #fulfilling #experience.
#Awareness of yourself is another benefit of Yoga. Being aware of your body, your limitations, your #achievement and your strength and being able to accept the same with #gratitude is the state of yoga. Yoga is a process of becoming more aware of who we are. By practicing yoga, by #mindfully achieving the poses, allowing yourself to be yourself and feeling connected, that is yoga. And so, yoga is #self-discovery. And this is one of the greatest #benefits of #yoga, I find. When practicing regularly, you’ll experience feelings of #gratitude, #empathy, #forgiveness as well as a sense that you are part of something bigger – the #Universe – and suddenly the #Ego becomes smaller and little less important. Yoga can #connect you to yourself, to your body, to your #community. Everything is connected, your #posture, your #breathing, your #nervous system, your #family, your #community. And this connection is incredibly important and is vital in our world. It’s a synergy and system that is perhaps most important benefit of yoga.
And 20 years on from my first class, not much has changed in people’s behaviours. People still want to come out of the class looking like #Madonna and still want to achieve the #impossible. And teaching a series of asana in a prescribed way (by great Yogi teachers that lived in a different era) may still be beneficial to them. But not to everyone.
Yoga has evolved in the last 20 years and is still evolving. It is still largely focused on physical benefits and #asana. But Yoga that I know now and Yoga that I teach is much more than asana. It is much more #therapeutic and has #holistic benefits attached to it. It is gently #lengthening my #muscles and #stabilising and #strengthening my core, it is #calming my #mind and is teaching me to #stop and #listen. Stop and listen to my body, stop and listen to the birds, stop and listen to my children playing and enjoy every moment that I have with them.
Yoga is teaching me to be grateful to myself and to #soften up. My Yoga practice has taught me to enjoy being #quiet and still and #appreciative of what I have. It has allowed my body to repair itself and gain strength slowly but surely.
What is certain though is that Yoga can help you make #changes in your life. It certainly helped me change mine.