By Kimberly Tharpe

Yoga is a science of life. Contrary to popular perception, Yoga involves much more than just yoga poses and meditation. With regular practice, yoga can be an extremely powerful healing tool; it is beneficial to the health of virtually everyone who tries it. Experienced as a slow sequence of postures, yoga is utilized as a mind opener, a stress reliever, a way to tone, balance, and bring flexibility to the body, align the spine and promote overall good health and well being. The meaning of Yoga is uniting the body, mind, and spirit. Traditionally, yoga is a method joining the individual self with the Divine, Universal Spirit, or Cosmic Consciousness. From it we gain peace of mind and a healthy body.

Yoga is beneficial to our bodies. Yoga can be therapeutic and is often used as a healing tool as well as to aid in disease prevention. In fact, yoga is the only natural physical activity that massages all the internal organs and glands. It creates stimulation that removes harmful toxins from the body. This can improve health by warding off illness and disease and by providing a forewarning at the onset of a disease or disorder. Yoga can be practiced by anyone of any age and aids in promoting a healthy life. One of the most studied areas of the health benefits of yoga is its effect on heart disease. Yoga has long been known to lower blood pressure and slow the heart rate. Lowering one’s heart rate is beneficial for those with hypertension or at risk for heart disease and stroke. On a biochemical level, studies point to a possible anti-oxidant effect of yoga. Oxidative stress is the process that you can counteract by eating your green leafy vegetables or take antioxidant vitamins: the production of free radicals, those highly reactive molecules that damage proteins, membranes and genes. Yoga can reduce this oxidative stress by increasing more antioxidants in the body. Yoga has also been associated with decreased cholesterol and triglyceride levels as well as a boost in immune system function. Some other benefits include: Increased circulation, strengthening of the heart muscle, increased efficiency of the circulatory system, better sleep, maintained bone density, increased lubrication of the joints, ligaments, and tendons, as well as reduced occurrences of medical conditions such as clinical depression, relieving symptoms of asthma, body aches and pains, and arthritis in those who practice yoga regularly. There are even some clinical trials for yoga and its health benefits for insomnia and multiple sclerosis. Yoga acts positively in maintaining the health of the human body. One of the most prominent benefits of Yoga is the ability to be young once again. People who constantly practice Yoga have found immense benefits from it and report feeling better than the way they felt in their younger years. According to yoga philosophy, it is the flexibility of the spine that determines a person’s true age. Yoga slows down the aging process by increasing elasticity in the spine, firming up the skin, removing tension from the body, strengthening the muscles, and correcting poor posture.

Yoga is an effective way to gain and maintain a healthy body. This ancient meditative art is a great way to get rid of extra flab from the body. Yoga is said to be the best way of weight reduction because it has no negative side effects on your body. It is simply meant to proportionate your body weight in accordance to your height and lifestyle. The mechanism of Yoga in your body is simple yet extremely effective. Moving slowly in and out of the poses, or asanas, practiced in yoga utilizes ones body weight as a means of building strength, flexibility, and balance and results in shaping long, lean muscles. Maintaining or losing weight with a yoga regiment has many advantages over other weight loss programs. Yoga allows the body to adjust naturally using the body’s ability to adapt and improve its self, resulting in a attainment of a healthy weight and toned muscles over time. In contrast to other common exercise programs, Yoga increases flexibility a great deal by helping to loosen tight muscles which can trap lactic acid and result in soreness and stiffness. Flexibility is not just for the muscles, it also means keeping the tissues, joints, and bones firm and strong; the internal organs healthy. A strong, flexible body is less prone to injuries because it can netter withstand physical stress.

Yoga is extremely beneficial in strength and endurance building. It is human tendency to feel heavy, exhausted, drained and weak after work. To overcome such a feeling, many physical trainers suggest yoga practice. It is a proven fact that Yoga makes one feel strong and light. After regular practice of yoga for a few months one starts feeling stronger than before. Yoga through its various breathing techniques ensures that the cells in the entire body get optimal levels of oxygen. Proper breathing provides sufficient oxygen for efficient functioning of every body cell. Without sufficient oxygen, the cells cannot metabolize food properly. Nutrients, including vitamins and minerals, are wasted. This process enhances the burning of fat cells and ensures improvement in immunity and activeness. Yoga is also greatly effective in developing endurance in the body. It also helps to attain proper coordination of all the body parts and smooth functioning of all the organs. The series of asanas done in a yoga practice work by safely stretching your muscles. Yoga is safe for stretching muscles because it is practiced slowly and to your own comfort level. These slow, stretching poses release and prevent the build up of lactic acid. Yoga increases the range of motion and lubrication in our joints. The outcome is a sense of ease and fluidity throughout the body. Yoga stretches not only our muscles but all of the soft tissues of the body. That includes ligaments, tendons, and the fascia sheath that surrounds the muscles. In one study, participants had up to 35% improvement in flexibility after only eight weeks of yoga. The greatest gains were in shoulder and trunk flexibility. In yoga, we are not just helping the muscular strength and flexibility, we are improving our balance and coordination as well. Few of us have proper balance. Imbalance in certain parts of the body can create stress and strain, often resulting in susceptibility to injury or chronic pain. By developing our ability to stay grounded in the poses practiced in Yoga, we keep our bodies balanced. Yoga can help us by facilitating symmetry throughout the body, making it feel stronger, and bringing balance to the equilibrium. By practicing Yoga we establish a foundation of health that prevents problems and gives our bodies strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination.

Improvement in balance is one of the major benefits of Yoga. Improved balance is referred not only to the physical coordination we gain, but also to the balance between our left and right sides, front and back and high and low aspects of our bodies. Standing poses are especially good for balancing as our bodies tend to rely on the stronger and more dominate side. You can learn how to strengthen the weaker side so it will match your stronger side. Uneven bodies can eventually lead to major health problems. Yoga helps us attain hormonal balance as well. Yoga poses affect the endocrine glands in a positive way by stimulating specific glands. The balancing benefits come from subtle compressions of the glands that regulate secretions and bring the system back into homeostatic regulation. This is especially important from a female point of view, and even more so for pre-menopausal and menopausal women, who want to find ways to balance their hormones naturally. Yoga also balances the insides of our bodies such as the nervous system which forms a starting point for a healthy mind.

Discipline of the mind and the body is the essence of yoga. Many yoga practitioners feel that without proper discipline and control over the mind and body, you cannot truly experience the full benefits of yoga. Part of the practice of yoga involves concentration and meditation, usually centered on breathing, to clear the mind and ground oneself spiritually and emotionally. Using meditation and deep breathing exercises can bring peace, calmness, and focus to one’s mind by directing awareness inward. When the mind focuses on a particular part of the body, the blood flow to that part increases and cells receive more oxygen and nutrients. We become at ease with ourselves which allows us to focus and relieve ourselves of negative energies, such as negative thoughts of any kind, worry, anger, or self doubt. All of which can cause stress. Meditation strengthens the mind. It helps us to gain control which in turn enables us to provide effective guidance to the physical body. It is a powerful tool in improving concentration and mental strength. As one practices Yoga, positive effects will begin to show. A sense of well being envelops the individual. It helps clarify one’s deepest motivations and aspirations, restoring confidence, hope, and meaning by giving life rationale. We all like feeling good, having a peace of mind, being joyful, feeling animated and calm. The sad part however is that most of us know that we are not feeling as well as we should, physically or mentally.

Yogic breathing is very effective in producing and maintaining relaxation and concentration. Because of the deep, mindful breathing that yoga involves, lung capacity often improves. This in turn can improve performance and endurance. Most forms of yoga emphasize deepening and lengthening one’s breath. This stimulates the relaxation response, the opposite of the fight-or-flight adrenaline boost of the stress response. Through yoga, we learn to increase the supply of oxygen to the body which reduces stress and increases energy flow and mental clarity. In life we often develop unhealthy breathing habits. Positions such as slouching diminish lung capacity which in turn causes shallow breathing. If we do not take in a sufficient amount of oxygen then toxic build up can occur, leading to pre-mature aging and a weaker immune system. Proper breathing from a yogic stand point, teaches that air is charged with prana, otherwise known as “life force”. In bringing more air into the blood stream and brain, we can use this energy force to heal ourselves and channel peace of mind. It has also proved to be helpful in the prevention of major illnesses.

Yoga is beneficial to the mind, body and spirit. Yoga makes us healthy, stronger, aware of ourselves, and better focused. Mentally and emotionally, yoga is a great match for anyone trying to change patterns and habits in their lives.

Kimberly Tharpe is a certified Yoga teacher. She teaches Yoga classes in the Roswell, Georgia area.