Buzz
If you're debating whether to start practicing yoga or not, here are 5 fantastic reasons why you should begin your yoga journey right now! Honestly, none of us are getting any younger, and we never know what tomorrow holds.
We all deserve to feel our best every day. So, set aside your to-do list and take a moment to explore 5 excellent reasons to begin practicing yoga today!
Engaging in yoga can serve as an excellent tool to help us cope with stress. (Source: Internet)
Ultimate Stress Reliever: Yoga Medicine
While stress is the key to our survival, excessive stress can be detrimental to our health. Prolonged stress can compromise your overall immune function, leading to high blood pressure, fatigue, depression, mood swings, and even heart issues. Although this is a necessary natural response, keeping your body in fight or flight mode for an extended period can be harmful. Our bodies can't determine whether we're truly facing danger or not.
Yoga practice encompasses various stress management techniques. It reminds us to soothe ourselves in moments of extreme tension and anxiety, much like how we train infants and young children to self-soothe when they're upset. Here are three key components highlighting how yoga practice can serve as an excellent tool to help us cope with stress:
Yoga poses involve physical exercises where we move, twist, and turn our bodies into different shapes continuously. This helps eliminate any accumulated stress toxins in our bodies from daily life. Every cell in our bodies tends to store the emotional baggage, fears, and disappointments we experience. Yoga poses aid in releasing these emotions. So, regular practice helps us feel calmer, more liberated after each yoga session. No matter what you do or how long you do it, as long as you can escape your mind and enter your body. This is the key to stress management.
Breathing has a profound impact on our bodies, cleverly combating stress. (Source: Internet)
Breathing is not just inhaling and exhaling; it's an ancient yet structured system to work with our breath consciously and systematically. This practice often starts with simple seated meditation, training our restless, distracted minds to focus on the breath and deeply connect with it. When the body is stressed, we tend to shallow breathe using only the upper part of the lungs. Learning to breathe correctly, deeply, and in a controlled manner develops resilience to anchor the mind. This breathing technique alone has a significant positive impact on our bodies, cleverly combating stress.
Just lying down and allowing yourself to fully relax for a simple 5 minutes can dramatically alter your response to stress. (Source: Internet)
Mindful and guided relaxation is the final component of the trio. If you've ever attended a yoga class, you'll know that it always concludes with some form of silent sitting or meditation. While you might want to skip this step or feel it's unnecessary, this is the stepping stone for your yoga practice. It's where your body processes and absorbs all the effects of the sequence, which is excellent for your nervous system. Just lying down and allowing yourself to fully relax for a simple 5 minutes can dramatically alter your response to stress.
Timeless Rejuvenation
Yoga keeps you youthful. (Source: Internet)
I love practicing yoga for various reasons, but if I had to pick just one, it would be this. Yoga keeps you youthful. In the place I come from, almost everyone I know ages like my parents and grandparents, who always view old age as a burden. It's considered a daunting phase of life when the body deteriorates, and performing daily tasks becomes challenging. This has always motivated me to strive to take care of my body to move around safely without injuries or illnesses and thrive in the later years to not depend on anyone. Of course, some illnesses and life events are unavoidable. However, starting yoga early in life is an investment for your aging years.
Enhancing Mental Alertness and Focus
In the physical practice of yoga, you're often instructed to focus on your breath, moving your body smoothly in coordination with the breath by expanding and contracting as you inhale and exhale. This enhances your mindfulness and self-awareness at any given moment.
Yoga enhances your mindfulness and self-awareness at any given moment. (Source: Internet)
There's a set of yoga poses extremely beneficial for enhancing clarity and focus. These poses help redirect blood flow to the heart and brain. By inverting the body, we gain the ability to change our perspective on many things. This brings us a sense of exhilaration and renewed focus to tackle stresses we haven't encountered before. Yoga won't eliminate stress, but it strengthens our coping abilities, a significant benefit if you start practicing yoga right now.
Improving Mood
Do you regularly check in with yourself and assess how you truly feel? Many of us spend a significant part of the day not becoming the best version of ourselves. The smallest things can make us lose interest, and then we carry it with us all day or even longer. When we start practicing yoga, we always find ourselves in a better mood.
Backbends help open the chest and enhance breathing. (Source: Internet)
Backbends are extensively utilized when working with individuals dealing with emotional issues or depression. They make us feel liberated and accomplished. Next time you feel discouraged or stressed, before reaching for medication or having a cup of coffee, try performing a yoga backbend and notice how your mood improves for the rest of the day. Simply providing oxygen to the body while moving creates a significant impact on our mood.
Strong and Flexible
No doubt, yoga makes you strong and flexible. Often, these aspects of the practice intimidate many as they believe it's a prerequisite to start yoga right away. The truth is, with consistent yoga practice, strength and flexibility will naturally come. Your muscles will become firmer, your joints will move and function better, and you'll steer clear of injuries. Physical health and flexibility contribute to mental strength and flexibility. The journey into practice doesn't necessarily have to start like this, but over time, with patience and dedication, you'll find yourself reaping the benefits.
No doubt, yoga makes you strong and flexible. (Source: Internet)
Feeling convinced to start practicing yoga yet? If you've been doing yoga, what's your favorite part of the practice? Leave your answers in the comments below!
Posted by: Quynh Trinh
Keywords: 5 Compelling Reasons to Begin Yoga Today!
