When people think of yoga they usually think of a room full of people chanting “Om” or some hyper flexible person putting their foot behind their head. Yoga is a far deeper practice that benefits individuals in many ways.
First, you must understand the difference between Asanas and meditation. Both where created over 4 thousand years ago in India to help improve people’s lives.
Asanas is physical yoga, which is what most people in the US think is 99% of yoga. It’s actually more like 1%. Asanas were designed to free the body and mind from all the restless energy that gets stored inside so you can meditate for longer periods of time. The benefit of practicing Asanas, or body disciplining poses as they say in India, is to keep the body alive and invigorated.
Your body is an organic machine. When you practice physical Asanas you’re stimulate all the muscles, glands, internal organs, immune system, and mind. This dramatically increases your energy.
Most physical yoga classes have you breathing through your nose the entire class, This a challeneging and beneficial when the breath is rythmatic and deep. This deep rythmatic breath is referred to as Ujjayi breath and is the main contributor to the process of freeing the mind and body of restless energy so that you have calm energy. Physical yoga also helps in enlivening the cells in your body with oxygen rich blood which helps them to repair themselves faster. There’s a famous saying that goes “the slower you breath the slower you age,” and that theory definitely holds true when practicing Asanas.
Teaching Power Yoga now for almost 7 years I’ve seen many transformations occur in my classes. The more dramatic transformations have occurred with students that have been consistent with their practice. One girl in my class, in a 3 month period, lost over 20 pounds and changed her lifestyle dramatically. She said that after practicing yoga she noticed she was stronger, more limber, had less aches in her body, and felt like she had a stronger mind. Physical yoga can change the way you think and feel!
In my next post I’ll tell you how meditation benefits you by uniting you with everything you’ve ever wanted.
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