5 Reasons You Should Try Yoga Right Now
Yoga is a brilliant way to take some real time out of your hectic life to reconnect with yourself. Whether you are feeling stressed or worn out from a long week, or you need to stretch out and feel good, yoga is perfect for you.
Just putting on your yoga clothes will calm you down and as you start your routine, you will feel the weight lifting off your shoulders.
Breathe in and breathe out… and relax…
Build Strength
Yoga is a brilliant way to build your strength as you gradually increase the difficulty of the poses you can achieve. You don’t need to be a gymnast or an athlete, there are plenty of poses that will work for beginners. It may take some time before you are successful, especially if you don’t have particularly good balance, but gradually, with practise, it will become second nature.
As you learn to lift your body weight, you will slowly build muscles allowing you to hold your poses for increasing lengths of time. By building muscle like this, you will also be increasing your metabolism and improving your flexibility giving you a healthier body as well as a healthier mind.
Increase Flexibility
You might think that yoga is unsuitable because you aren’t flexible enough but you couldn’t be more wrong! The whole point of yoga is to gently increase your flexibility so you don’t need to be flexible to start with. It’s the same principle as going for a run without having ever really run as an exercise before – you just have to start slowly and build up.
With your flexibility improving, you will also find that your balance gets better too. You might find that your first attempts have you wobbling about all over the shop, but as you get better and build your strength and flexibility you will soon find your centre of gravity more easily. Work from your feet up, aligning each body part as you go to give yourself the best chance of success. Focusing on a fixed spot will help too.
De-stress
The world is so full of distractions and yet the best ways to relieve stress and anxiety are often to reconnect with yourself and take the time to calm down. This is why yoga is so good. Slowing your breathing and focusing on your movement is just what you need to give yourself time to relax. There are a few poses you can try but these 5 poses are perfect for helping you to chill out and take some time away from your hectic life – distraction fee.
Even if you aren’t feeling particularly stressed, yoga is a good way to give yourself a bit of me time. By focusing on your breathing and your body, it can really bring you back to earth and reconnect you to the present. We all spend a lot of time thinking about what we need to do next, but yoga is all about what is happening now.
Improve Anxiety
Anxiety is a condition that can make life incredibly difficult, especially if you are prone to panic attacks and are finding day to day activities increasingly difficult. Yoga may provide you with a good outlet to help to calm your thoughts and slow you down as there is good evidence that it can modulate your response to stress. In other words, yoga gives you the capacity to take things on more calmly without triggering an episode of anxiety.
Of course, anxiety has many complexities and yoga is not necessarily the complete solution for your problem. However, as it has very little potential for negative effects, it is well worth a go to see if it helps you. Focus on your breathing as you tense and relax your muscles to gradually calm down.
Stress and anxiety are both mental illnesses, so if you are feeling like you can’t cope, you must speak to someone you trust to get help.
Improve Your Posture
If you have bad posture, it will quickly lead to back problems that could take a long time to fix up. Yoga may not be suitable for you if you have a bad back already, however, if you simply want to avoid problems, yoga is ideal. Speak to a physiotherapist if you aren’t sure.
We all spend so much time sat at desks or lounging on sofas that we really do put a lot of pressure on our backs and pull them out of shape. However daft it might sound, the yoga pose Tadasana is actually the way you should be standing all the time. And yet, it might take looking at a picture for guidance and some practise before this becomes natural to you (as it should be!). There are other poses that will help your posture too by stretching out your back and lengthening your spine.
Yoga can be just half an hour taken for yourself each week or it can become a lifestyle to live by. It is a completely immersive practice that gives you the space to clear your mind and get in touch with your body again. Over time you will find that your body will grow leaner and more flexible as you build and stretch your muscles and destress.
If you have never tried yoga before, there really has never been a better time to do so. The modern world is so full all the time that it can quickly become oppressive. Yoga is in total contrast to this; you can hardly check your emails or scroll through your social media channels while you are doing the tree pose!
There are all sorts of videos you could use to get yourself started but joining a local class is probably the best introduction you can get. The teacher will be able to help you into the different pose and give you pointers to improve. You will also have the support of everyone else in the class too. Once you get used to a nice routine, there is no reason you can’t build it into your lifestyle. A few minutes in the morning to clear your head could be just the thing to start your day as you mean to go on.