Yoga is like the true essence of a healthy lifestyle. From staying fit and fine to rejuvenating oneself from the daily chores of life, including yoga in your routine is surely going to be one of those things that you cling on to for life. And it's a common misconception that yoga is for adults or grown-ups, but it is for all those who wish to treat their bodies like a temple.
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And for those who are still clueless about why should you inculcate yogic wellness in your life, here's a list of reasons to do so.
One of the most extraordinary benefits of doing Yoga breathing exercises (Pranayama and Kapalabhati) is it supports your respiratory muscles making them stronger, flexible and gives your lungs more room to breathe. It also enhances the overall capability of our respiratory system by gradually lengthening our inhale and exhale abilities. Regular yoga breathing exercises also lower the chances of being a victim of Asthma and furthermore, it can also cure mild Asthma and COPD. Practising Yoga regularly would help you take fewer breaths of greater volume and which is very calming and would enhance the stillness of your body.
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The basics of yoga—asana, pranayama, and meditation—all work to improve your health, but there's more in the yoga toolbox. Consider chanting! It tends to prolong exhalation, which shifts the balance toward the parasympathetic nervous system. When done in a group, chanting can be a particularly powerful physical and emotional experience. A recent study from Sweden's Karolinska Institute suggests that humming sounds—like those made while chanting Om—open the sinuses and facilitate drainage.
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It has been proven from time to time that Yoga has a profound effect on your body, mind and soul. Which eventually helps in lowering your increased blood pressure by reducing stress. Its forms like Savasana and Shisuasana promote blood circulation in the body, thus maintaining stable Blood Pressure by relaxing your entire mechanism. Another such effective asana is Paschimottanasana, which normalizes high blood pressure and relieves you of stress.
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Yoga lowers blood sugar and LDL ("bad") cholesterol and boosts HDL ("good") cholesterol. In people suffering with diabetes, yoga has been found to lower blood sugar levels in several ways: it lowers unnatural release of cortisol (body's alarm system) and adrenaline (body's reaction plan to sudden blows) in your body, reinvigorates weight loss process and improves sensitivity to the effects of insulin. Those who practise Yoga religiously are known to have controlled their blood sugar levels and have experienced a drastic decrease in the risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.
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Ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation - all of these can be exacerbated by stress. So if your stress levels are low, you'll suffer less. And Yoga, like any other physical exercise, can ease constipation while reducing stress, both at the same once. It also theoretically and to a great extent practically, lowers the risk of colon cancer—because moving the body facilitates more rapid transport of food and waste products through the bowels. And although it has not been studied scientifically, yet yogis suspect that twisting poses may be beneficial in getting waste to move through the system.
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Yoga can ease your pain, almost every kind of! According to several studies, asanas, meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain in people with arthritis, chronic back pain issues, fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome and other chronic conditions. When you relieve your pain, your mood improves, you're more inclined to be active and you don't need as much medication.
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While practising Yoga, when you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroys cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning. Tadasana, Vrikshasana, Trikonasana, Utkatasana, and Matsya are some of the best asanas to boost our immunity.
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Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind, according to Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. In other words, it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, anger, fear, and desire that can cause stress. And since stress is implicated in so many health problems—from migraines and insomnia to lupus, MS, eczema, high blood pressure, and heart attacks—if you learn to quiet your mind, you'll be likely to live longer and healthier.
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Among other benefits, one of the most sought after reasons for people to practice Yoga is its anti-ageing quality. By boosting the redevelopment of dead cells in your body, Yoga improves your skin quality by leaps and bounds. Its capability to reduce stress delays the natural wrinkle process of your skin. And there are a number of other reasons that help in delaying the ageing process.
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Move more, eat less—that's the adage of many a dieter. Yoga can help on both fronts. Regular practice gets you moving and burns calories and the spiritual and emotional dimensions of your practice may encourage you to address any eating and weight problems on a deeper level. Yoga may also inspire you to become a more conscious eater. Surya Namaskar, Pawanmukhtasana, Vajrasana, Gomukasana, and Pada Hastasana are a few asanas that help us in weight management.
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Our head is like a bowling ball - big, round, and heavy. When it's balanced directly over an erect spine, it takes much less work for your neck and back muscles to support it. Move it several inches forward, and you start to strain those muscles. Hold up that forward-leaning bowling ball for eight or 12 hours a day and it's not a surprise that you'll get tired. And fatigue might not be your only problem. Poor posture can cause back, neck and other muscle and joint problems. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. This can cause pain and degenerative arthritis of the spine.
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Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you probably won't be able to touch your toes, never mind do a backbend. But if you stick with it, you'll notice a gradual loosening and eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You'll also probably notice that aches and pains start to disappear. That's no coincidence! Issues like tight hips which strain the knee joint due to improper alignment of the thigh and shinbones, tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain and inflexibility in muscles and connective tissue, such as fascia and ligaments, can cause poor posture can be fought through Yoga.
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Yoga is extremely beneficial for Athletes & Dancers as it develops the limit to sustain endurance, builds your core strength, strengthens your muscles and increases focus. It also helps the sportsperson and those involved in rigorous physical activities like dancers to know and understand more about their body and how to deal with the issues pertaining to it. A routine of Yoga would help in building up your aerobic process and normalize the muscle reaction to stress during extreme activities.
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Yoga and meditation build awareness. And the more aware you are, the easier it is to break free of destructive emotions like anger. Studies suggest that chronic anger and hostility are as strongly linked to heart attacks as are smoking, diabetes, and elevated cholesterol. Yoga appears to reduce anger by increasing feelings of compassion and interconnection and by calming the nervous system and the mind. It also increases your ability to step back from the drama of your own life, to remain steady in the face of bad news or unsettling events. You can still react quickly when you need to and there's evidence that yoga speeds reaction time but you can take that split second to choose a more thoughtful approach, reducing suffering for yourself and others.
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Well-routined Yoga can improve overall health and wellness resulting in a better lifestyle. One can achieve numerous mental and physical health benefits by adopting Yoga as a lifestyle. From reducing stress to increasing concentration and from relieving tension to building strength there is so much one can improve in his life and in fact, Yoga is a way to a new life.
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Yoga is never-ending for those who wish to lead a healthy lifestyle. For daily health issues to conditions that arise with age and time, Yoga is a perfect solution. So if you're all set to introduce something as perpetually beneficial and rejuvenating as Yoga in life, then get to it right away. Also, Read how to get your Asanas right or join Yoga Classes in Delhi for a kickstart to your Yoga regime.
Q: Do I need to consult a physician before starting to practice Yoga?
A: More or less, you need not consult a physician before adopting a habit of Yoga, yet if you have a chronic physical condition that can worsen due to any kind of exercise, then you should definitely consult your regular physician before.
Q. I am new to Yoga, would I need an instructor?
A. Learning from an instructor is not mandatory but is recommended. There are various postures and asanas that require clinical accuracy and hence only under the guidance of a certified professional can you perform these properly.
Q. Which one is better, meditation or yoga?
A. Meditation and yoga are two different practices with distinct objectives. It is impractical to compare the two. For holistic development of health and over-arching mental as well as physical wellness, it is recommended that you incorporate both yoga and meditation in your regular lifestyle.
Q. How many repetitions of Surya Namaskar is suitable in a day?
A. It purely depends upon one's physical abilities, but for any healthy normal person, a minimum of 12 Suryanamaskaras per day are advised. Also there is no upper limit to it, however, for those who wish to lose weight and like to do Suryanamaskara as cardio exercise, can stretch it up to 108 Suryanamaskara per day at one go as well.
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