Many individuals use yoga as an exercise or as a way to relieve stress. Although the benefits reaped from Yoga quite often speak for themselves, many are unaware of the vast amount of research that exists to prove that Yoga is great for the mind and the body. Although everyone may have different reasons for loving Yoga, here are my 5 top reasons to do Yoga:
1: Yoga was the only sleeping supplement that worked for me
One of the most commonly quoted benefits of Yoga, and rightfully so, is its ability to relax both the body and the mind. When I first started Yoga, I instantly noticed my body felt less tense, and as a consequence of that I also experienced much less headaches. Yoga also made me feel much more mentally relaxed as it helps to decrease the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body. As such, since I began Yoga my quality of life has drastically improved.
2: I can finally touch my toes!
I was never an extremely physically active person which made me extremely anxious to start Yoga. However, after only two months of practicing Yoga, I can finally touch my toes! As much of my job requires me to sit down, I often had extremely tight and knotted up muscles, which caused discomfort. Now I rarely feel tense, and friends have even commented on the posture improvement this has resulted in. Lastly, Yoga increased my physical strength as it helps exercise muscles often inaccessible by other exercises.
3: It changes your DNA expression – for the better!
A more recent finding on the practice of Yoga is that it literally has the ability to alter the expression of your genes. Researchers have found that practicing Yoga increases or decreases the expression of certain genes involved in the stress and inflammation pathways in our bodies to decrease stress and inflammation responses. This generally promotes wellbeing overtime by reversing the molecular marks left on our cells by daily stress and illness.
4: Helps discover your body
Many people take their bodies for granted – they are under the assumption that the body will act how it is supposed to and does not need to be listened to. However, through practicing Yoga I learned how to listen to my body which in turn helped me understand it. As such, Yoga greatly improved my mind body connection, and this benefit has been reported by many.
5: Helps find peace
Perhaps this benefit is partially due to all of the other benefits of Yoga mentioned, however, Yoga helped me find peace in another way. Through Yoga I really learned how to connect to my spirituality, which in turn has helped me find peace. This was heightened by implementing purposeful breathing into my Yoga routine as it taught me to use my breath as a channel that connect me to the Universe.
Well, these were my reasons for continuing to practice Yoga. However, as Yoga is based off Hindu philosophy which emphasises the reality that everyone is different, I encourage everyone to find their own reasons to love yoga!