What is yoga?
In sanskrit (language of ancient India), yoga means “union”. Yoga is about creating a balance between mind, body, and spirit, more than just a form of exercise. What is commonly referred as ‘yoga’ in the west, is actually asana, only one of the eight ‘limbs’ of yoga.
The beauty of yoga practice is it will create a balance between strength and flexibility. It is suitable for everyone, even if you don’t have a very flexible or strong body. Everyone will have their individual practice, and the practice itself is always evolving. Even though everyone are doing the same pose, they have different ways of approaching it. Yoga is non competitive and non judgemental, its not about how many fancy poses we can do, but how still and how present we can be in a pose.
Benefits of yoga
Physically
Flexibility :Yoga poses work by safely stretching the muscles, liganments increased circulation, and release lactic acid builds up in the muscle that causes stiffness, tension, pain, and fatigue. Yoga also increases the range of motion and lubrication in the joints.
Strength : Some yoga styles are more vigourous than the others and builds more strength and stamina. But, many yoga poses builds upper and lower body strength, and when practiced correctly, almost all poses build core strength in deep abdominal muscle.
Posture : Most yoga poses encourage to sit or stand “tall”, or to create a feeling of lengthening the spine, yoga practice also increased body awareness, it means that you will likely to aware when you start slouching or slumping, so you can quickly adjust your posture.
Improved lung capacity : Most people doesn’t use their maximum lung capacity, they only breath half or even less of their lung capacity. Yoga emphasize lengthening and deepening the breath, filling the lungs with more oxygen to nourish the body.
Mentally : Yoga poses, especially balancing postures, often train concentration and the ability to focus mentally. Research also found that yoga boosts oxygen level in the brain. Some studies also suggested that yoga may have a positive effect on learning and memory.
Emotionally : Yoga students, even beginners, claim they feel less stressed and more relaxed after a class. This might be because deep and slow breathing stimulates the relaxation response, the opposite of fight or flight response to stress. Yoga also encourage to focus on the breath, this techniques quiets the “chattering” of the mind that often underlies stress. From biochemical processes, yoga has shown to decrease catecholamines, (stress hormones), and increased GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter that induce relaxation and reduce anxiety). Some research also suggested that yoga boosts oxytocin hormone, a “trust” and “bonding” hormone that is associated with relaxed feeling and connectedness.
