The Health Benefits of Yoga
Yoga offers an enormous range of health benefits, both physical and mental.
It exercises every part of the body and improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system (heart and arteries) and the musculoskeletal system (bones, muscles, joints and ligaments).
Yoga also supports a healthy digestive system, and balanced endocrine (hormone) system. But the unique benefit of yoga is its calming effect on the nervous system. Conscious breathing (pranayama) and physical postures (asanas) are combined to balance mind and body, and bring a sense of calm and relaxation.
Yoga can help to manage a range of stress related conditions including high blood pressure, insomnia, anxiety and depression.
The physical benefits
Yoga helps build resilience. Grounded in the notion of ‘healthy body, healthy mind’, yoga helps us to develop awareness of the interplay between the physical and spiritual, and provides us with the skills to harness our inner strength.
Yoga helps to combat the effects of our sedentary lifestyle. It can help relieve the physical tension built up through being seated at a desk or in front of a screen for prolonged periods of time.
Regular yoga practice can improve a person’s posture, muscle tone, flexibility and general range of movement. Yoga postures also stimulate the endocrine system, releasing hidden reserves of energy and feel-good hormones. Yoga improves circulation helping to flush toxins from the body, supporting the functioning of the major organs and immune system by removing waste products from the cells more quickly.
As with most forms of exercise, yoga helps to support a healthy cardiovascular system and strengthen the skeletal and muscular structures, often providing relief from back pain and joint problems.
The mental benefits
Prolonged stress will eventually manifest itself on a physical level. Each time we find ourselves under pressure the hypothalamus stimulates the release of stress hormones including adrenalin and cortisol. Many studies have shown the ongoing activation of our stress-response system disrupts almost all of the body’s major processes, putting people at risk of numerous health problems including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Digestive problems
- Heart disease
- Sleep problems
- Weight gain
- Memory and concentration impairment
Combined with the positive physical effects yoga has on our hormonal system, yoga helps us develop our powers of concentration and mindfulness, and learn to manage the way we respond to stressful stimuli.
Using aspects of breath, postures and mindfulness practices such as yoga nidra, students learn to calm the mind and direct the thoughts. As we develop these skills we can learn to extend them to other aspects of our life, both to manage negative stress and to improve focus and clarity for enhanced performance.
