Yoga – A New Way of life

December 19, 2011 By
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Yoga is a method of discipline which started in ancientIndiaabout 3000 years ago.  A person practices yoga for physical, mental, and physical benefits. A male who practices yoga is called a “yogi” and a female yoga practitioner is called “yogini”.  The meaning of the Sanskrit (ancient Indian language) word yoga is “union”, a union of the physical and the spiritual. Through yoga, a being connects himself with God; thus he becomes capable of balancing his mind, soul, and emotions to connect with the Supreme Being and achieve enlightenment.

The term yoga also means “harnessing”, harnessing the lesser powers of your being and applying it in a loftier manner. Practicing yoga has many spiritual and physical benefits. The first and the foremost benefit of yoga is that it calms your mind so that you can have a clear thought process. Practicing yoga helps you to handle stress in a better way.  Yoga helps you to maintain a good temperament in your relationship with the people you are connected to.

The health benefits of yoga are never overlooked.  Through yoga you will improve your fitness and physical strength. You will become more flexible, chances of muscle or organ atrophy are very unlikely. Your cardiovascular strength will be increased, making you less prone to heart diseases. Regular practice of yoga flushes out all the toxic wastes from your system, and helps maintain the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal system, and get rid of problems like backache, arthritis, and asthma.

To enjoy the complete benefits of yoga there are certain things which are to be kept in mind. The first thing to remember is that yoga is not just another exercise regime by which we can reduce our fat.  Yoga is a lifestyle which can positively affect your being and can mend your character.  Another fact is that there are different kinds of yoga practices and we often get confused about which one to start with.

Some forms of yoga are

Hatha yoga – This is a slow-paced form of yoga which is best for someone who is new to this. The body movements are slow and asanas (postures) are simpler. This yoga aims at uniting the mind, body, and spirit.

Ashtanga yoga – This form of yoga is more physically demanding. You move from one pose to another with fast body movements. Ashtanga in Sanskrit means “eight limbs”. This fast moving and progressive sets of poses increases your stamina, flexibility, and strength.

Iyengar yoga – This form of yoga practice is done based on the guidelines outlined by B.K.S Iyengar , and it focuses on holding a posture for a longer period of time than other forms. Iyengar yoga helps you to increase your body balance and endurance.

Bikram yoga – The yoga is practiced in heated room so that people sweats a lot during the class and it helps in loosening the muscles and detoxifying the body of its toxins.

There are many institutions out there providing yoga instructions. Have a discussion with the instructor about their beliefs and ideas of yoga, prior to getting enrolled.  This will help you to choose a better form of yoga suitable for you.

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Health benefits of yoga

December 19, 2011 By
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Today’s world is busy and quite stressful. People are finding ways to get rid of their stress somehow. They invest a large sum on various treatments for this purpose. Training yoga at home can be a better method for you if you want to ease up your mind.  Yoga deals with mind and body. History has shown the benefits of yoga. Great monks by practising yoga even learned how to gain mind control!

 

Anxiety is our greatest enemy. Anxiety causes various health problems. We may try to deal with it by making ourselves busy with some tasks. Actually by doing that we are not really trying to resolve the problem, but we are learning how to forget the problem. Yoga practice can be an excellent method for this problem. Yoga consists mainly of breathing and stretching exercises and meditation. These methods have found to have various health benefits.

 

Let’s find out the various benefits of yoga. The main benefit of yoga is mental and physical fitness. The ageing process that is mainly caused due to autointoxication can be prevented by yoga. If you want to achieve the maximum benefits from yoga, you have to combine yoga with the practices of pranayama, yogasanas, and meditation. Yoga practice on a regular basis tends to relieve from health conditions such as digestive disorders, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, asthma, arteriosclerosis, arthritis, asthma, heart conditions and varicose veins. Tests on yogis have proved that they are able to control body’s involuntary functions such as heart beat, blood pressure, and temperature. Research on the effects of yoga on HIV patients currently has come up with promising results.

 

Medical scientists say that the yoga therapy is very beneficial since because of the balance that is created between the endocrine system and nervous system which influences the other systems in the body. By practicing yoga, we will know interlink between the physical, mental, and emotional levels of the body. This awareness leads us to understand more areas of existence.

 

Studies proved that yoga therapy tend to relieve symptoms of some life threatening diseases such as areteriosclerosis, arthritis, diabetes mellitus, AIDS, and asthma. Asthma can be dealt even without any drug combination. Physicians believe that yoga practice help the patients to gain control over their internal environment and restoration of self-awareness. Yoga therapy can be very useful even for pain management. It stimulates the brain’s pain centre for production of the pain killers in the body. Breathing exercises is also used in yoga therapy to reduce pain.

 

Weight reduction through yoga practice is a better method for obese people to loose their weight because there are no side effects. The thyroid gland is associated with the body’s metabolism. There are some specific asanas for stimulating the thyroid gland. When the gland is stimulated, it increases the fat metabolism so that the fat is stored is converted to energy thereby reducing your body weight.  Practicing yoga daily increases your self-awareness; it relieves chronic stress, sharpens your concentration, and relaxes your mind and body. There are many other psychological benefits too. 

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Art Of Righteous Living

December 19, 2011 By
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Yoga is considered as an art that provide benefits and strength to our body, inner spirit and mind. It is an ancient practice which was originated inIndiaabout thousands of years ago. The Puranas and Upanishads written by Aryans during post- Vedic and late-Vedic periods have references about yoga. A systematic written approach about yoga was found in yoga sutra written by Patanjali. It was written about two thousand years ago. This book clearly depicts the principles of the yogic discipline. This text is considered as the important one regarding the yoga and it spreads the importance of yoga around the world.

Yoga is considered as a spiritual and physical exercise. Through yoga we can attain enlightenment and physical and mental refreshment. Yoga is basically categorized into four different groups. They are Raja yoga, Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga and Jnana yoga. Yoga is considered as an important part in some religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Contemporary yoga consists of a large number of principles and most of these principles are taken from these religions. Hinduism believers consider yoga as a method of getting closer to almighty. For Buddhists it is believed that yoga will help them to achieve a higher grade of wisdom.

Eight stages of yogic disciplines are illustrated by Patanjali. They are Yamas, Niyamas, Asanas, Pranayama, Partyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadi. Yamas deals with abstentions and restrains. Niyamas deals with surrendering the ego, purity, contentment and study. Asanas is related to exercises or physical postures, Pranayama to breathing control, Partyahara to withdrawal of senses and Dharana to concentration of mind. Dhyana means meditation and it will provide a relaxed mind which is free from external interferences. Finally Samadhi means an attainment of a super conscious state. For some yoga practitioners the ultimate goal is to attain Samadhi. It is considered as complicated mental state. In this state a person can achieve ecstasy.

The main goal of yoga is to attain physical and mental fitness. Thorough yoga it is able to relax our mind and body. It will enhance our physical and mental functions. People in western region considered yoga as a method of self-improvement and refreshment. Yoga will help us to achieve full control over our mind and body. Yoga will keep our body strong and healthy. The different yoga postures will strengthen your muscles in feet, shoulders, hands, legs and abdominals. Breathing exercises in yoga will increase your flexibility and supporting tendons, joints etc. People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis will definitely get an improvement by practicing yoga.

There are some athletics forms of yoga which will help us to improve our endurance. Bikram yoga, power yoga, asthanga yoga and vinaysa yoga are some of these. This will help you to attain cardio-vascular workouts and results in a better core strength. Yoga strengthens and stretch your neck and back muscles and so it will provide relief from chronic neck and back pain. It will lower the blood pressure, cholesterol levels and provide steady heart rate. It will ensure continuous flow of blood and oxygen throughout the body.

 

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