The 10 Benefits of Yoga Asanas that you can enjoy with regular practice. Yoga is an age-old practice rooted in Indian philosophy, which has existed for many centuries. It blends mindfulness with physical movements to nurture a well-rounded and healthy life. Through yoga, you can calm your thoughts and discover happiness by moving your body and managing your breathing. Read on for the best 10 Benefits of Yoga Asanas benefits of yoga, according to experts and research.
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1. Yoga helps with stress and anxiety:
Through a Yoga asana practice, you often experience mental calmness because it helps control the logical part of your brain over the emotional part. With regular practice, your brain forms new pathways that give you more control over your thoughts.
Pranayama, another aspect of Yoga, is good for improving your breathing. Stress and tension can make you breathe quickly and shallowly, making anxiety worse. Yoga lets you use your diaphragm and your lungs fully when you breathe. Certain Pranayama techniques, like Brahmari (humming bee breath), Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril), and Ujjayi (victorious) breath, are especially helpful for reducing stress. Breathing through your left nostril can also have a calming effect.
2. Yoga exercise for reducing heart diseases:
To actively promote heart health, consider incorporating yoga into your daily routine. It not only improves your physical well-being but also nurtures your mental health, ultimately benefiting your heart’s health.
Before attempting yoga asanas, it’s essential to warm up properly. You can start with gentle exercises like Sukshma Vyayam to prepare your body for these poses.
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The best asanas to keep your heart healthy are Vajrasana, Malasana, Santolanasana, Bhujangasana, Adomukhi Svanasana, Tadasana, and Vrikshasana.
Here are some asanas that patients with heart diseases should avoid:
Chakrasana, Halasana, Karnapirasana, Sirshasana, Viparita Karani
3. Yoga improves sleep:
In today’s busy world, taking slow, deep breaths while moving can help you release anxiety, worry, and distractions. Racing thoughts often keep people awake at night, but luckily, yoga can help you feel calm before bedtime. A study in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine found that certain yoga poses, like those that stretch and relax your muscles in Restorative or Yin Yoga, can make your body and mind work more, making it easier to fall asleep, have deeper sleep, and experience fewer sleep problems.
4. Yoga Helps in Weight Loss:
Yoga isn’t just about the body, it can help you lose weight as a nice bonus. It’s not just exercise; it also makes your mind calm and less likely to make impulsive choices, especially with food. When you feel naturally calm, you don’t feel the need to eat when you’re stressed. Plus, when you do yoga regularly, you become better at understanding what your body wants to eat and when. This helps you make smarter and more thoughtful food choices.
5. Yoga helps in improving the Immune system:
Our body, mind, and spirit are all connected. So when something’s wrong in our body, it can make our mind upset (like a sore back making us feel stressed). Likewise, when our mind is troubled, it can make our body feel unwell (like feeling anxious leading to a tummy ache).
Doing yoga poses is like giving your insides a gentle massage. It makes your organs work better, your muscles stronger, and your blood flow faster, which helps clean your body. Yoga also makes your lymphatic system work better. Lymph is like a clear, watery cleaner that gets rid of bad stuff like germs. Breathing exercises and meditation can also help you relax and make your immune system stronger.
6. Yoga helps reduce Chronic Pain:
Around 50 million people have long-lasting pain, according to the CDC. But yoga can help make it better. Yoga makes your body more flexible and able to move better. It also lowers swelling, which can cause pain.
A study in Pain Research and Management found that different yoga poses can make chronic back pain feel less, even if you only do them for a little while. Another study in Medicine showed that yoga might also help with neck pain and make it easier to do everyday things when pain is a problem.
7. Yoga helps prevent mental decline:
It’s important to keep your mind sharp as you get older, and although some people experience memory problems as they age, yoga can help keep your mind strong. In a study at UCLA, 25 people with memory issues practiced either yoga or brain exercises for 12 weeks. The results showed that both groups improved their memory and the connections in their brain.
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8. Yoga strengthens your muscles and bones:
As we get older, especially after 30, our muscles can become weaker, which might make it harder to move around. “Doing yoga can make your muscles stronger. In one study, about 200 women did 12 yoga poses, like Tree Pose, for just 12 minutes a day for two years. The results suggest that yoga might make your bones stronger too.
9. Yoga helps in maintaining Better Relationships:
Yoga can make your relationships with your spouse, parents, friends, and loved ones better. When you feel calm, happy, and content in your mind, you can be there more for others and notice how your actions affect them. Yoga and meditation boost your self-esteem and make you feel happier and more positive, and these feelings help you listen better, pay attention, and be kind to both yourself and the people around you.
10. Yoga helps in Feeling Energetic:
Do you often feel very tired by the end of the day? Our world moves quickly, and it asks a lot from our minds and bodies. Plus, our phones and computers keep sending us lots of information all the time. Doing a few minutes of yoga each day might be the trick to feeling awake and full of energy, even after a long day. Breathing deeply naturally makes you feel more energetic because it gives your blood and brain more oxygen. Spending just a little time moving your body can wake you up and might even help you stop relying on caffeine!
The Bottom Line of 10 Benefits of Yoga Asanas
There are plenty of great reasons to start practicing yoga, but it’s beneficial to learn what yoga involves and how to begin as a newbie before you start.
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