The Importance of Practicing Yoga
Answers
If you're a passionate yoga practitioner, you've probably noticed some yoga benefits—maybe you're sleeping better or getting fewer colds or just feeling more relaxed and at ease. But if you've ever tried telling a newbie about the benefits of yoga, you might find that explanations like "It increases the flow of prana" or "It brings energy up your spine" fall on deaf or skeptical ears.
Researchers Are Catching On to Yoga's Benefits
As it happens, Western science is starting to provide some concrete clues as to how yoga works to improve health, heal aches and pains, and keep sickness at bay. Once you understand them, you'll have even more motivation to step onto your mat, and you probably won't feel so tongue-tied the next time someone wants Western proof.
First-Hand Experience With the Benefits of Yoga
I myself have experienced yoga's healing power in a very real way. Weeks before a trip to India in 2002 to investigate yoga therapy, I developed numbness and tingling in my right hand. After first considering scary things like a brain tumor and multiple sclerosis, I figured out that the cause of the symptoms was thoracic outlet syndrome, a nerve blockage in my neck and chest.
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Despite the uncomfortable symptoms, I realized how useful my condition could be during my trip. While visiting various yoga therapy centers, I would submit myself for evaluation and treatment by the various experts I'd arranged to observe. I could try their suggestions and see what worked for me. While this wasn't exactly a controlled scientific experiment, I knew that such hands-on learning could teach me things I might not otherwise understand.
Answer:
Different practices of yoga involve specific movements and postures in combination with the complete focus of the mind, breathing techniques, and mind relaxation techniques like meditation. Yoga helps to maintain good heart health by:
• Reducing blood pressure, heart rate and blood cholesterol
• Increasing lung capacity
• Improving blood circulation
• Improving body mass index and reducing waistline
• Yoga reduces mental stress and keeps the body light which in turn aids to reduce the stress on heart
• Yoga increases exercise capacity of an individual and thereby improves heart functions
• Yoga reduces blood inflammation markers and controls heart diseases
• Specific asanas of the yoga-like Tadasana, Vrikshasana, trikonasana, Utthita Hastapadasana etc help to maintain good heart Health