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You insure yourself of ailments by making "Yoga" your lifestyle

You chant “Om” and you get healed. You breathe in and out and you get healed. Unbelievable?? Yes it is. There are many who might laugh at it as well. But it is a reality that Yoga, an age old practice of staying healthy and cure of many diseases, has many such miracles instilled in itself. It has the power of healing the soul. In this polluted environment and busy life, one should definitely try to take out at least few minutes to practice this wonderful ascetic discipline.

We have heard this word ‘Yoga’ so many times right from our teenage but we never really care to understand the store house of wealth it possesses till the time we do not experience any physical pain. It is when our physician asks us to turn to yoga for a long term relief from pain that we try and understand the benefit of yoga.

What is yoga?

Yoga is the traditional Indian science of balancing one’s body, mind and soul with the application of physical and breathing exercises. It comprises of a lot of exercises for each and every part of the body, including nails and hair.  

Why do we need yoga?

Understanding the difference between staying healthy and having some disease will in itself answer why all of us need to make yoga our lifestyle. Absence of any physical ailment does not necessarily mean that a person is healthy. A person suffering from a particular disease can, otherwise, be a very fit and healthy person and a youth having any disease can be dull, inactive and unhealthy.   

Right from Hollywood stars to Bollywood actresses, to your office receptionist, your neighbor next door, everyone speaks about the benefits of yoga but they leave you confused as to which exercises should you chose.

Yoga can broadly be classified into these five categories  

Hatha yoga: Hatha yoga is as old as 15^th century and is native to India. This type of yoga involves light and slow exercises. It pays emphasis on gentle breathing exercises and on meditation. The aim of hatha yoga is to introduce the concepts of yoga to the beginners. The benefits of this type of yoga include creating a connect between mind and body. It also helps improve breathing.

Vinyasa yoga: Vinyasa covers physical exercises in combination with breathing. It includes all the steps of surya namaskar which consists of twelve postures of exercises. This helps bring a lot of flexibility in the body. Those involved in activities like dance, skating and other such sports should consider Vinyasa as it brings in lot of flexibility.

Ashtanga yoga:  Ashtanga yoga, as the name suggests, has a thrust on building the efficiency of the limbs. It is fast, energetic and involves push-ups and lunges too. It bests suits people who are involved in stamina related sports, like swimming, boxing, etc.

Iyengar yoga: Yoga basically focuses on eight different arms of Ashtanga yoga and the thrust is on proper Iyengar alignment of body. Iyengar yoga requires some props like mats, blankets, ropes, blocks etc. Stretching exercises specially the ones in standing posture are practiced for a stipulated period of time. Iyengar helps improve alignment of bones and muscles. It strengthens the bones even in cases as complex as arthritis, bone injuries and any malfunction of the joints.

Bikram yoga: Bikram is popularly known as hot yoga for the reason that it is carried out in a room with modified temperature which is maintained at around 95 to 100 degree. It is nothing but a total set of 26 exercises or postures that help loosening of very stiff muscles through sweating. The whole idea behind Bikram Yoga is to push out toxins from the body, it helps clean the tissues and cells of the body and provides flexibility.  It is advised for people who are looking for relief in specific body areas and relief from some injury. 

Benefits of yoga are just innumerable:

·         It helps in weight loss.

·         I helps in inch reduction and weight loss for specific parts of the body.

·         Helps create a balance between body, mind and soul.

·         Helps ease out back pain.

·         Helps control blood sugar levels.

·         Builds flexibility in the body.

·         Helps strengthen the muscles and limbs.

·         Helps a long way in posture correction.

·         Helps restore the posture of your spine.

·         Yoga is a great way to help in the proper circulation of blood. Specially the relaxation exercises help improve the blood flow to the hands and feet both.

·         Improves concentration to quite an extent.

·         Is very effective for the health of nervous system.

·      Pranayam helps the person get proper sleep. Those suffering from  sleeplessness should consider going in for yoga.

Pumps up lymphs which helps kill cancer cells too!

As a matter of fact, when we expand and contract our muscles while performing various yoga stretches and exercises, our body pumps out lymph which is a thick liquid high in immune cells. These immune cells are very powerful in fighting infections and combating cancerous cells and clearing out toxic waste from the body.

Shavasan (corpse posture) helps bring down high blood pressure

The most beautiful aspect about yoga is that its one of the simplest steps like Shavasan, which requires a person to just lie and relax like a corpse. Various research show that continuous practice of this posture helps bring down high sugar levels.

Helps ease out depression

Those of you who get constant bursts of depression should definitely consider yoga as it reduces depression and helps the mind release hormones which make us feel relaxed, calm and composed, thus making us much happier.

Essential Tip: However good a particular medicine may be, we still first consult our physician before consuming that medicine. Same is the case with yoga or any other form of physical workout. First understand your body, your lifestyle, and your schedule and then consult a practicing yoga expert. A second thing is that, your belief system is very strong. If we believe that a particular thing will work on us, only then will it benefit us.