Why Is Yoga So Important?

Introduction

As humans, it is vital for us to maintain a balance between ourselves and the environment.

These days, people are suffering from more emotional turmoil than ever.

Some are going through anxiety, stress, and other disorders because of their lack of physical exercise and an unhealthy lifestyle.

Yoga has become an effective method for achieving the health and harmony necessary to overcome these challenges.

Yoga creates a balance between the mind, body, and spirit, helping us focus on the present and not on things of the past or future that are beyond our control.

Through this, we are able to understand ourselves better, discover our purpose in life, and develop our relationship with the higher power.

And best of all, reaping all these benefits isn’t as hard as you might think. This guide and beginner friendly websites like Lotuskitty.com can get you up to speed in no time.

The Impact of Yoga on Our Daily Life

Adopting yoga into our daily life has long been a topic of interest in fitness centers, rehab facilities, health institutions, adult education centers, and sports facilities.

What’s great about yoga is that everyone can do it—from young kids, teenagers, and young adults to older adults and seniors. It doesn’t require any stunts, and there’s almost always a pose for those suffering from physical and functional limitations.

By incorporating yoga into your daily life, you help promote positive thinking, discipline, perseverance, and kindness in yourself and in those around you. This leads to a path of incredible self-knowledge and, eventually, self-realization, which helps one become his or her best version.

All these goals are achieved through the following:

• Putting your mind in a state of peace
• Showing respect towards life and nature
• Expressing love and kindness towards yourself and others
• Maintaining healthy eating habits
• Keeping a positive attitude towards life
• Showing respect towards other cultures and religions
• Working towards better physical health

So, you see, there is also more to yoga than performing poses and breathing exercises. Yoga is a discipline that is integrated into every aspect of your being and reflects in the way you live your life and how you treat others. If you’re looking for yoga classes for newbies, Flametree Yoga Studio offers different beginner courses online.

Here are the ways yoga impacts the different aspects of your health:

Physical Health

There’s no question that our body’s health has to be prioritized. Through yoga, we can engage in physical exercises, breathing techniques, and relaxation to improve our physical state. It can also improve areas of our physical health concerning flexibility and balance, thanks to the variety of basic yoga poses we’re introduced to.

Mental Health

By practicing yoga religiously, we become more aware of the connection between our mind and body. This level of awareness of mind contributes to reduced stress levels, muscle tension, pain, and inflammation. We are also able to focus and concentrate better and calm our nervous system.

Social Health

Optimal social health entails being able to achieve happiness within yourself while also bringing happiness to other people. It also means communicating effectively with other society members, knowing one’s responsibilities, and working hard to improve the community.

Yoga helps improve your social health in such a way that you’re also able to stop and appreciate life’s beauty, which many people often fail to see. It can also help those suffering from substance abuse and other mental illnesses by bringing positivity and purpose into their lives.

Whether you’re attending yoga classes with like-minded and equally driven individuals or at your home studio, perfectly content to be on your own, yoga can bring you amid the best company. Great company helps shape character and personality positively and also develops your spirit as an individual.

When yoga is a part of your daily life, you start to become someone who works to make others smile. You become a person who finds happiness in the good fortunes of other people and considers them as your own blessings. This can reflect in the way you work hard for your community, preserve nature, and maintain peace wherever you happen to be.

Spiritual Health

Meditation, prayer, mantra, tolerance, and positive thinking are all synonymous with yoga. These elements are what contribute to the development of good spiritual health.

Yoga is founded upon the idea that humans have intrinsic goodness, which they protect instead of destroy. It brings about characteristics in a person such as forgiveness, understanding, and selflessness. It encourages a person to be protective and respectful of other people’s individuality.

Those who are religiously practicing yoga as part of their daily lives recognize that all forms of life deserve freedom of mind, body, and spirit.

Yoga Exercises for Beginners

Although yoga is gentle and low-impact compared to many types of exercise, you still need to ease into a yoga program. All forms of exercise come with risks, especially if you jump in full throttle.

You can risk tears and other damage to your muscles if you attempt to go too deeply into poses or skip to advanced poses without doing the prep work.

Even basic sun salutations can wear out a beginner, and those are just the warm ups. Start with a yoga exercise plan for beginners so you can enjoy a safe, healthy yoga practice.

Sun Salutations

Yoga routines open with sun salutations, which are short routines consisting of standard yoga poses. There are variations in each style of yoga. Some styles also perform the routines more quickly than others. Beginners should start with 2 to 3 rotations through a sun salutation using a basic routine.

A simple beginner version of sun salutation A includes:

• • Stand in Mountain pose
  • Bend forward into Forward Fold
  • Step back into a left Low Lunge
  • Assume Plank position
  • Lower into Four-Limbed Staff pose
  • Look up in Cobra
  • Push back into Down Dog
  • Step into a right Low Lunge
  • Step forward into Forward Fold
  • Stand up again in Mountain

Two to three times through a sun salutation is plenty for your first day of yoga. Work up to three sun salutations during your first week. Use a slow tempo. Attempt to hold down dog for several breaths, gradually building up your time in this posture.

Adding Seated Postures

Basic yoga poses can be divided into seated and standing postures. A few poses are performed lying down and make for great poses to put at the end of a routine. There are also arm balancing postures, but these are best reserved for non-beginners. You can further divide postures into twists, inversions, supine poses, prone poses, backbends, and balance poses, but for the purposes of a beginner routine it is simplest to stick to standing and seated poses.

After your first week of mastering the sun salutation it is appropriate to add some seated postures. Easy pose, cobbler’s pose, half lotus, and staff pose are some good beginner postures. After three to four rounds of sun salutations, experiment with 3 to 5 seated poses. Hold each pose for three to five breaths. End your routine with lying in corpse pose for 5 minutes.

Adding Standing Poses

Standing poses strengthen your legs, challenge your balance, and stretch your hips, legs and torso. It is best to add these poses after you feel proficient at sun salutations. The timing may be your second week or maybe even your fourth. Some good beginner standing poses include tree pose, warrior I and II, standing backbend, triangle pose, and goddess pose. Start with two standing poses in addition to four sun salutations and 5 seated poses. Hold each pose for two to three breaths. Finish with 5 to 10 minutes of deep breathing while lying in corpse pose.

Yoga is a gentle enough practice that you should be able to do it almost every day, but three days a week is a good place to start. You can slowly add more standing poses and extend the time you hold each position.

As you advance in your practice, you can add inversions, arm balances and advanced versions of standing and seated positions. There is also another sun salutation version called sun salutation B that you can try later on.

Conclusion

The extent of yoga’s impact on an individual goes beyond the physical to the spiritual, mental, and social aspects of health. For this reason, people have been incorporating it into their lives as a tool for shaping their being.

Putting your faith in the discipline can spell positive changes for the way you go about life, in general. Yoga, when done right, has a holistic effect on you and those around you that erases any doubt as to the magnitude of its importance.

You can see more information about yoga by checking out videos, tutorials, and articles online.

About Shannon Clark

Shannon holds a degree in Exercise Science and is a certified personal trainer and fitness writer with over 10 years of industry experience.