Health and Weight Loss Benefits of Yoga

Yoga is gaining more and more popularity each day. I have to admit that I was completely against it at first.

When I began setting my goals for weight loss and developing my weight loss plan, people kept telling me to add in yoga. All the websites I visited included yoga, and some of my favorite workout videos included yoga as a stretch at the end.

At first I resisted because of my religion. I am a Christian and at that point I could not allow myself to practice yoga because of its spiritual background. I would alter the stretches and workouts so that they fit the way I wanted them to.

I continued to read about yoga though because it looked like a great way to stretch and strengthen my muscles; not to mention the flexibility it would give me. What I discovered was completely opposite of what I had originally thought.

Most western yoga is based upon the physical aspect of the practice.

I decided that I would give it a go. I fell in love with it.

As I continued to practice, I also continued to research. I now love the spiritual side of yoga. It is about finding a balance within your body to sustain your life. I use yoga as a part of my daily practice because it helps me focus and feel closer to the spirit of God.

Here is what I have learned about the benefits of yoga and how it can truly help anyone on their journey to a healthier lifestyle.

Yoga is considered an alternative health practice with its origins in India. It is a true balance of physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing to find that inner peace, relaxation, and anxiety management. There is a huge variety of styles and practices, which makes it easy for everyone to find a version that meets their needs.

As you practice yoga, in any form, you will begin to experience the multitude of health benefits:

Increased fitness levels

Yoga helps improve balance, flexibility, and core strength. These are all much needed improvements to help your body become stronger, more reliable, and able to more easily complete daily tasks without risk of injury.

Fewer aches & pains

I have personally found yoga to be extremely helpful in alleviating my lower back pain. I have a slipped disk; when I neglect to my yoga workouts I notice a more intense pain on a daily basis. Others have also discovered that a practice of daily yoga helps relieve symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, mood, and fatigue as well as many others. I can, on some level, attest to all of these. My life has been a roller coaster and thanks to yoga, it is definitely more balanced.

Helps lower weight

I had dealt with obesity most of my life, once I discovered yoga I was truly able to overcome this. It works as a weight loss tool on its own by burning a few calories, but it helps control other aspects that are larger factors in weight gain. Having a daily practice of yoga allows you to take control of your life and create healthy lifestyle changes that flow into other aspects of your life. It can help with binge-eating control as well as help decrease the need for yo-yo dieting by creating a balance.

In today’s society most people are overworked. Most of us have chaotic schedules that are in constant flux making it difficult to keep any constants. When you implement yoga as a part of your daily routine, you will find that being able to control that one thing, helps create balance in the rest of your day. It brings a calmness to life that helps reduce stress and anxiety levels.

I encourage you to try adding at least five minutes of yoga to your daily routine. It will make a huge difference.