By Katerina Nicodemus

Yoga is a very complex science of health and can have a profound effect on over all health and well being. Yoga means union, its mission is to unite body, mind and spirit. Even if people are skeptical towards the mystical concept, the value of bodily exercise and meditative techniques makes thousands of people to practice Yoga on a daily basis. The principal yogis have understood for ages that proper exercise is designed not to develop muscles and exhaust us, but gently stretch and tone the body and mainly to stimulate circulation in every cell of our body so that full health can be restored. Many people are attracted to Yoga as a way to keep their bodies fit and therefore looking good. Others practice Yoga for specific health issue like tension or backache. Some people are just looking to get more out of their lives. Whatever reason, Yoga can be an instrument to give people what they came for, and more. To be able to understand what Yoga can do, people need to experience it for themselves.

Yoga is an eye opener about ourselves, our feelings, values and of course our health. With regular practice people will suddenly start noticing changes not only how toned and relaxed their bodies became, but also a way of calming the mind and need for searching their inner peace because it is our true nature. It is the self-realization people are looking for whereas they are consciously aware of it or not. Self-realization leads people toward indentifying what their health problem can possibly be, not the medical observation. The body is our instrument and nobody knows it better than we do, once we learn to read it, Yoga can restore and maintain our health.

In such a hectic and high paced living, we do not even realize that we might have a health issues. We are too busy to pay any attention to our body signals which are trying to tell us there is something wrong. We do not admit or allow ourselves to be unwell because it feels like it becomes a sign of weakness which can slow us down in our materialism orientated life style. So many people suffer these days with tension headaches, anxiety, digestive disorders, insomnia, which all these conditions I believe can be fixed simply just by stepping back and taking a deep breath. What is worse, that even children are starting to have similar problems from very young age. So many studies have shown that relaxation in the Corps Pose can help relieve, for instance high blood pressure, and that regular practice of Yoga can help with arthritis, arteriosclerosis, chronic fatigue, asthma, varicose veins and heart conditions.

Depression right now is incredibly on the rise because of an economic situation as so many people are loosing their jobs and therefore have no money to pay their monthly bills. Yoga practice can be a way to help people to deal with depression. Most commonly suggested treatment by doctors for depression is intake of antidepressants. From yogic perspective, antidepressants are simply tools, not good, not bad. What is crucial is to use them wisely in times of need and stay away from them if not needed. There are people who are depressed without knowing it. Both men and women may even avoid treatment because of embarrassment, seeing themselves as weak individuals or believing that not much can be done to help them. Since stress is a huge contributor to depression, part of yoga’s effectiveness is its proven ability to alleviate tension, lift mood and help to lower cortisol levels /cortisol-stress hormone/. Something as simple as a proper posture and deep breathing can affect your mood immediately. Yogis also believe that letting go of muscular tension; can counteract feelings of stress and depression as having another beneficial effects. It is well acknowledged that some depression may have mainly biological basis, yogis often ask: What can be learned from depression? Not only modulating our response to stress, which yoga does very well, but trying to go deeper and searching whether there are other areas of our life – relationships, work, ability to set aside time for ourselves- that need to be addressed. For people who choose yoga as a path out of depression, having faith, being patient and committed to the practice becomes crucial. Faith in yoga is about seeing that what you are doing appears to be working. Certain postures like backbends seem to be therapeutically for people suffering from depression, because the energy required to move into a backbend often overpowers the agitation of the mind, and can bring a feeling of calm. To name a few postures, Supported Downward-Facing Dog Pose is very grounding, stabilizing pose for the emotions and using head support to counteract the fatigue that often comes with depression. From a yogic perspective, active inversions like Headstands and Shoulderstands and restorative inversions like Legs-Up-the-Wall pose are helpful to cultivate emotional stability. It is thought by yogis that regular practice of inversions, especially if done for months or years can have enormous effect, calming and quieting the mind and stabilizing moods. One of the ideas of B.K.S. Iyenger for students with depression was that they hold the tension in the outer portion of their eyes. He would sometimes ask these students to try to, as he puts it, “move the edge of the eyes toward the temple and ears”, while doing a challenging pose. Chanting also is a wonderful practice for people with depression. But as with anything, because we are all unique everything needs an individual approach. What works for one person might not work at all for another.

Many times we have all heard the statement, we are what we eat. This is true of course, because food is necessary for our physical well-being. The yogic diet is quite simply the most nature. It is based on fresh, light, nutritional food such as fruits, grains and vegetables. It’s reason is to keep the body lean and limber and the mind clear and sharp in order to get the most out of yoga practice. Yogis advocate a vegetarian diet because it comes first hand to us and is purely produced by nature. For yogis meat, fish or poultry is considered second hand food, where animal flesh is full of toxins and tends to cause diseases. Most Indian Yogins are lacto-vegetarians, which means, they do not eat meat, but do eat milk and milk products. Many studies are showing that a balanced vegetarian diet is extremely healthy and provides all the essential nutrients a body needs.

Statistically, vegetarians have a lower incident of heart attacks, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer and they are less likely to suffer from obesity. Being a vegetarian is a personal choice which is entirely up to us, but maybe just as a first step try to eat less meat. Try to go for more nature wholesome foods, include more fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds into our diet. Stay away from processed foods, like white flour, hydrogenated fats, sugary sweets, chemical sweeteners, too much coffee, tea, alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs. Becoming a vegetarian is not about stopping to eat meat but finding a new way of life. Personally, the ideal diet is the one which makes you feeling and being truly healthy, being comfortable and stable in body and mind, experiencing normal bodily functions, and having the strength and endurance to engage in vigorous exercise and the demands of everyday life.

What attracts me most about yoga is its versatility and simplicity at the same time. You can do as little as you want or push yourself as far as you feel like and it is still going to make you feel good. Yoga can be done by anybody, regardless of their age. There are yoga classes for children, pregnant women, elderly, people with injuries and they all can do yoga. To do yoga during pregnancy is one of the best thing a women can do for themselves. Yoga will help them get through pregnancy and delivery, whatever their health or circumstances, and provide a positive environment for the growing child, right from the start. Yoga can be a great source of strength and help women to be more loving and giving mothers. Likewise starting yoga when young gives children the best foundation in life. All children are naturally flexible and have a sense of balance. They are adventurous and love to mimic others, especially when it comes to make different animal poses. Meditation from an early age can help tremendously with children’s concentration.

For elderly, it is never too late to take up yoga. We are only as old as we feel. Our bodies have incredible regenerative powers and even after short yoga practice people will start sleeping better, be more energetic and have more positive outlook on life.

What yoga did for me? As a mother of three little children, I can get pretty stressed out and tired with no time to do anything for me what so ever. Since practicing yoga, every day, I will get up before anybody else and do 40 minutes of yoga exercise and 15 min. of relaxation or breathing. I have always been into exercising, but never realized how much it can really mean to me and how great it can make me feel. If I do not do my yoga in the morning I will always try to squeeze a little time for it during the day. Even If it’s a 5 min. headstand and 5 minute shoulderstand with my youngest daughter who will keep poking into my belly button and think I am being silly. Some days I will feel really tired and upset for what- ever reason. I will close my eyes and take a few deep breaths in our garden and life will suddenly look brighter. As a big bonus, I developed my muscles on my body which I could have never have done before and managed to loose all my baby weight. Whenever I feel stiff, I love doing Sun-Salutation to stretch my spine and feel the energy flowing in my body. I am surprised at myself, what poses I can actually do and how flexible my body has become. I am also lot more aware of my posture and breathing in connection to stress and tiredness. I find myself a lot calmer, rounder, happier and mostly content and fulfilled with what I do. I would be lying if I say I do not have bad days and do not get stressed out, but, most importantly I found tools to help me to deal with it. Lots of my relationships have changed because I started to see people differently. I became even more connected to nature and simplified my life. I do not spend money anymore on things which I thought are making me feel better. I do not need fancy clothes to look and feel good. I finally found myself and realize who I really am. Apart from being a dedicated mother, loving wife, daughter who unconditionally loves her parents, I am a girls who fell in love with yoga and realized that yoga is what I was always meant to be doing. I really wish to become a good yoga teacher. So I can make people happy, healthy and feeling good about themselves.

My case is just an example, how far can Yoga take you if you truly believe in it. If a lot more people could start practicing Yoga, the Earth would become a happier and healthier place to be.

Namaste – light within me, solutes light with in you.

Katerina Nicodemus is a certified Yoga Teacher.