7 Reasons Why Yoga Should Be Your New Thing
In today’s society, everyone lives in the fast lane. Need a peaceful retreat to escape to? Make yours a yoga studio.
A hectic work / life balance makes it easy to lose perspective of the things that matter, like your health! By becoming a yoga-buff, you address every aspect of your ‘being;’ the physical, mental and the spiritual – something that running 5k on a treadmill can’t achieve.
Yoga should definitely become your new thing. A happy, de-stressed mind with beach-body to match? Yes please. Here are 7 reasons to grab your yoga mat and go find your inner peace. Namaste.
Curbs Insomnia
If you’re tossing and turning at night, yoga could help. Very often those who can’t clock in the essential 7-8 hours a night have an overactive mind before going to bed, due to stress or too much ‘screen’ time (put the smartphone down!)
By incorporating yoga into your daily routine you can help relax those muscles ready for a good night’s sleep. Researchers at Harvard Medical School asked participants who suffered varying degrees of insomnia to practice basic yoga every day for 8 weeks and keep a sleep diary of their results. From the study, they found “statistically significant improvements were observed” when comparing the start of the 8 week period to the end.
Harvard Medical School explains, it’s yoga’s multicomponent nature that helps “reduce arousal” and encourage a relaxed state of mind before your head hits the pillow.
Effective Weight Loss
Forget gym fads; regular yoga sessions promote effective weight loss with longer lasting results. Despite being a low-impact sport, research conducted by medical researcher Alan Kristal of theFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center suggests that yoga can help people of all ages make visible improvements to their waistline.
From an extended study Kristal conducted on the effects of yoga on weight loss, he found that “yoga practice for four or more years was associated with a 3.1-lb lower weight gain among normal weight and an 18.5-lb lower weight gain among overweight participants.” Bored of the gym? Stretch yourself slim with yoga.
Thoughtful Eater
From his study for the Cancer Research Center, Kristal determined that of the positive effects yoga has on weight loss; not all can be attributed to the physical aspect of the discipline. The impact it has on your mental and spiritual self also plays its part. In short, a calmer, collected, happier you is more likely to make better lifestyle choices.
Harvard Health Publications describe it as ‘mindfulness.’ Those who pursue yoga tend to comfort-eat less often, and instead, “focus their attention on what they’re experiencing in the present moment without judging themselves.” Yoga helps remove any emotional connection to eating, encouraging you to naturally want and eat healthy, well-balanced meals.
Makes You Stand Taller
Stretching and lengthening the muscles not only leaves you looking lovely and lean; it’s great for your health too, alleviating back, shoulder and neck pains and improving your sense of balance. This enables you to stand taller and appear more confident (and attractive!) to others.
If you’re guilty of slouching at your desk and your posture shows it, try yoga. According to yoga therapist Eva Norlyk Smith, research proves that it can help improve bad posture and “even reverse hyperkyphosis, the age-related posture issue also known as dowager's hump.”
There’s Never Just One Yoga
Gym machines can get quite repetitive, and whilst basic yoga steps (or Hatha yoga) seems relatively slow moving, there are ways to spice it up.
There are several types of yoga practices just waiting for you to try out – like the hot and steamy Bikram yoga, designed to push the body’s limits under 40 °C heat. The high temperature’s said to encourage the body to release toxins as you sweat, in addition to improving muscular endurance and cardiovascular flexibility.
Then there’s Ashtanga yoga that involves continuous high-intensity stretches over an extended period of time. This is arguably the most challenging yoga practice, synchronising effective breathing techniques with physically demanding poses.
But the latest yoga craze to sweep the nation is #extremeyoga, in which adrenalin junkies visit the most scenic spots in the world (cliff edges and arctic conditions included) to pull out their best#extremeyoga move. It’s not for the faint hearted!
Enhances Your Immunity
Everyone knows that yoga’s amazing for the body, gradually toning and strengthening each muscle group as you stretch. But there’s also research to suggest that yoga can alleviate symptoms of certain other health conditions that you might not have realised.
Suffer during allergy season? Through deep, extended breaths and meditation, you can ease and soothe your sinuses. A study made by Sweden’s Karolinska suggests that humming through each pose helps too.
Not only that, the twists, turns and stretches of yoga also help to reduce lymph congestion. Carrie Demers of Yoga International explains how yoga detoxes the body of “toxins and cellular waste” by enabling the lymphatic system (the white blood cells that enhance our immunity) work to its potential. Yoga improves the circulatory system and cardiovascular health, which in turn, keeps everything else running smoothly.
Better Body Image
There are no two ways about it; yoga makes you happy. It strips away superficialities and forces you to focus on the present, allowing you to develop your emotional strength as well as the physical. This new sense of emotional empowerment helps improve low self-esteem; boosting confidence and positivity.
Harvard Health Publications notes that this is the reason why many yoga studios avoid using mirrors, encouraging people to “focus their awareness inward rather than how a pose – or the people around them – look.” They believe that by regularly practicing yoga, you learn to become less self-critical and more appreciative of what you have.