09/17/2024
Whether you have practiced for a long time or are new to yoga, it's always enlightening to remind ourselves why and how yoga offers so many benefits for us. It truly is a holistic health practice.
Just read this passage, for example, which was published online by the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine:
"While modern medicine has the ability in many cases to heal physical diseases and alleviate psychological disorders, it is argued that a purely medical approach is far less effective in healing the emotional, intellectual, and personality layers of the human entity. The discipline of yoga offers individuals a timeless and holistic model of health and healing and although it may not result in the complete elimination of physical diseases and/ or adverse conditions from the body it offers a holistic path of healing. There exists an indisputable connection between a person's overall physical and mental health and the inner peace and well-being yoga is designed to achieve. Yoga suspends the fluctuations of the mind and by acting consciously, we live better and suffer less."
There are scores of research studies and respected sources of articles that consistently prove the correlation between health benefits and yoga. Just a few of the health aspects yoga has undisputedly helped include depression, back and spinal pain, fatigue, anxiety, brain function stimulation, digestion, memory, reduction in BMI, heart disease, and overall quality of life. Over and over again, these results hold true.
So if you are relatively new to yoga, you can feel good about the fact that developing a yoga practice is one of the best things you can do for yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally! And, the wonderful added bonus is that when you follow good practices for safety and sustainability, a yoga practice can evolve with you for life.
