Yoga Integrates The Mind, Body And Spirit And Prepares A Person For Meditation
There are many reasons yoga is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. Yoga clears the mind, improves one's health, and opens the door for deeper spirituality and divine connection. For some who are looking to get away from over the counter drugs for pain relief and a variety of other ailments, yoga offers an alternative to managing one’s health with a holistic approach.
Yoga is practiced to create both mental and physical balance within the body. This is accomplished by practicing the various asanas, which are physical positions recognized by ancient yogis as having the power to move energy throughout the body in ways beneficial to health. These poses have been continuously handed down from teacher to student through millennia because they are effective.
While holding the asana, a student greatly increases his or her mind body connection, ultimately allowing the space for meditation to occur. The stretch of the muscles, increased blood circulation, toning of the internal organs and improved flexibility are only secondary benefits, according to original teachings. Comfortable and functional yoga clothing helps participants practice asanas more easily and effectively.
Long, deep breaths have a calming influence both on the body and the mind, and are the foundation of all yoga practice. Prana is the practice of breathing with control so your long, deep breaths will settle and relax the body, allowing chi to flow. Proper yogic breathing prepares the body for meditation. It also helps to flush waste products out of the body.
The practice of yoga asanas combined with breathing techniques can increase your strength and flexibility while improving balance, posture and body awareness. It also creates a mental environment and physical vehicle primed for meditation, the powerful healing tool finally recognized by medical science within the past decade that has long been a foundation of Eastern healing practices.
Alexandra Ross is a freelance writer, food lover and healthy lifestyle writer.
See also:
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