Tag Archives: Internation Day of Yoga

Culture and History, Education, Social Studies

Why you should try yoga?

Top 10 Unexpected Health Benefits of Yoga | Shape

What is yoga, and why is it so popular? Yoga is a series of stretches and poses that you do with breathing techniques. It offers the powerful benefits of exercise. And since yoga is gentle, almost anyone can do it, regardless of your age or fitness level.

Yoga is a 5,000-year-old discipline from India. It was developed as a practice to unite the mind and body. There are many branches of yoga. All yoga styles can help balance your body, mind, and spirit, but they achieve it in various ways.

A study in The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine (among others) shows that yoga can build strength in addition to flexibility. And flexibility is the key to strength. When your muscles and the tissues that surround them are super tight, you’re not able to move as much weight with a full range of motion in the gym. Doing yoga helps loosen up those tissues so you can get more out of your strength sessions.

Research in the International Journal of Yoga shows that yoga not only reduces stress, but can help lower anxiety and depression, too. (It can also help battle insomnia, helping people who have it to sleep sounder at night, per researchers in Southern India.) There are as many types of yoga as there are machines in the gym, each having their unique benefits. There’s something for everyone: From hot yoga to aerial yoga to a good ‘ol Vinyasa flow to Ashtanga and Kundalini.

A study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that yoga can ward off heart disease helping to keep your heart in good form. Since that’s one of the key reasons people do cardio in gyms, to boost heart health, it’s interesting to note that similar benefits can be reaped from a yoga class. The twisting, stretching and folding of a yoga practice are good for the digestive system, the circulatory system, the lymph system and more. It’s a great way to detox the body and can improve your cardiovascular system. And all this while developing stronger muscles. A gym workout is focused just on strengthening muscles and boosting cardio.

Yoga is a different experience in a yoga studio, but you can easily practice yoga at home, outside or in small spaces. All you need is about 6 feet by 4 feet and you have your own yoga studio. A gym workout requires more equipment and more space.

Yoga eases your aches and pains. A gym workout increases them. Yoga slowly stretches muscles and opens the energy channels of the body. The increased flexibility keeps muscles and joints lubricated and healthy. Weights and treadmill can cause strain which leads to soreness and injuries.

Yoga helps you breathe easier. During times of stress, it’s easy to forget to breathe, really breathe, and not just shallow breaths. Without deep breaths, it’s harder to think clearly and fatigue can set in. Yoga focuses on the breath so that when you need it most, those deep breaths are the norm.

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Culture and History, Education

Increasing Relevance of Yoga in Modern Times

Yoga is one of the most ancient Indian Philosophical and Practical system propounded by sage Patanjali (150BCE). Yoga enhances the potentialities of the people. One should control the mind and practice the moral and ethical disciplines before attempting serious Yoga. Yoga should become lifestyle and people should control their food habits, entertainment, trade and commerce in order to be good citizens of the country. Ever since UNO declared June 21st as International Day of Yoga, celebration of this event has become a good phenomenon. Yoga is not about stretching of the body, it is about the self realization.

Yoga-Indian Ethos

Yoga should become a part of our everyday life. Yoga is an ancient Indian science having a scientific background which has an antiquity of 11,500 years. Practice of Yoga can enhance physical, mental, emotional, intellectual and spiritual powers of people. Sage Patanjali says: ‘Yoga can control the modification of our mind-stuff’. Sage Vashisth says in Yoga Vashista treatise that ‘The means for calming mind is called Yoga. India is in the frontline of information technology, biotechnology, nano-science and other types of research. The internal and external stresses of people in these fields can be relieved by practicing Yoga and also for attaining peace and comfort. Various Yoga organization and NGOs and several central universities have popularized Yoga worldwide with efforts.

Yoga and Health

The systems of Ayurveda, Veda and Yoga have enhanced the health and longevity of Indians since time immemorial. Chakara while elaborating on the issue of health of an individual says that complete health means the totality of health body, sense organs and pleasant mind which has been incorporated in the motto of World Health Organisation. In this context, the great contributions of ancient Indian medical doctors like Chakras, Nagarjuna and other Vedic sages merit our attention.

Yoga and Youth:

Yoga should be imparted to children from very young age and it should become their lifestyle. Yoga would become a powerful means for promoting ageless Indian culture and tradition. The practice and perfect understanding of four streams of Yoga such as knowledge ( Jnana Yoga), action (Karma Yoga), devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and meditation (Raja Yoga) would calm down body, mind and release stress. Indian youth who form more than 50% of total population should practice Yoga for the overall development of their personalities. One can learn good habits, become model citizens on the country by practicing Yoga ethics and this alone can bring holistic health for people. Yoga lore are the principles and techniques that are practically applied in the SMET (Self-Management Excessive Tension) program, which has received global popularity for its effectiveness in the stress reduction. Especially the super-busy Executive world has finding great value in regular SMET practice; as it brings about the ‘expansion of awareness’ and ‘depth of perception’ through cyclic pattern of stimulation and relaxation. Yoga could promote the concept of ‘Earth is but one family’ (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam). India can emerge in yogic and spiritual planes and earn the encomium of Yoga Vishwa Guru among the comity of nations in the coming years.