Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is regarded as the most effective way to gain complete control over the mind and soul of a person. Yoga is not a recent practice, in fact it has been here since ages and the benefits of yoga are evident to everybody. Literature on Yoga shows that was the first developed in India around a thousand years ago. Yoga can also be regarded as a mechanism which helps you to attain holistic control over the mental, physical and spiritual aspects of a human being.

Yoga was not accepted at first sight in the West. There were serious apprehensions about the efficiency of Yoga. Bit gradually when people began to see and realize its benefits their outlook against Yoga changed. In fact scientific evidences pointing towards the innumerable benefits of Yoga also helped people's outlook.

Regarding the physiological benefits of Yoga there are many. Prominent among them are improvement in the functioning of all major functional systems of our body like the Cardiovascular system, nervous system, respiratory system, endocrine system, excretory system and the musculoskeletal system. Yoga also helps to improve the balance and coordination of the body. There are also many biochemical benefits of Yoga like decrease of Glucose, LDL cholesterol, and catecholamine. Lowering of these biochemical elements helps in preventing major diseases and also brings resilience to the body.

Psychological benefits of Yoga are more important. This is because people nowadays are expected to suffer more from psychological problems than physiological problems. Benefits of yoga in this sector is by regulating mood related disorders like depression, anxiety, panic attacks. Yoga also helps in the enhancement of personal skills like concentration, memory. With Yoga there is a definite improvement in the social skills of a person and he becomes more confident and thus can adapt and deal with any kind of situation.

There are also immense spiritual benefits of Yoga. Proper practice of this form of exercise helps you in self realization and consciousness which is so important to have peace of mind.

Different types of Asamas or postures of Yoga also have different type of benefits on the body and the mind. Asana yoga is the most popular form of Yoga that is practiced worldwide. Asana yoga prepares the mind and the body in such a way that the body becomes immune to long hours of meditation. Flexibility, Stamina and Physical Strength are some of the key components that Asana Yoga focuses on.

Hatha Yoga another posture of Yoga is aimed at aligning bones and muscles and improving the skin. Also Hatha Yoga opens the body so that the energy can freely move.

But above all this you must remember that the most important benefit of Yoga is perhaps the control over breathing and thought.