What Is Yoga ?
Yoga, an ancient art as old as over 5,000 years,
is getting a newfound popularity worldwide. This
ancient science is said to "remove the root cause
of suffering" according to Patanjali, the first
person to write down the principles of yoga. The
word "yoga" comes from the Sanskrit root yuj,
which means "to join" Yoga can be defined
as a union with all. The continued practice
of yoga leads you to a sense of peace and well-being,
and also a feeling of being at one with their environment.
Yoga not only creates complete well-being, it also
reduces excess weight by burning calories, boosting
metabolism and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. It is
undoubtedly a very effective form of exercise. Yoga
postures and poses help in lengthening, strengthening
and tightening the muscles of the body. It is an excellent
long-term holistic approach to loosing excess weight
- and keeping it off. Yoga also creates many other positive
changes: improves self-esteem, increases mental focus,
reduces stress, promotes flexibility and increases strength
and balance.
Yoga and Weight Loss
Yoga can reintegrate your body, mind, and spirit
in a way that helps you have greater control over your
impulses, resulting in effective weight loss and weight
management.
Some of the ways that yoga may support weight loss
include the following:
- It helps you to relax and meditate thereby enhancing
your self-esteem. Improves your in self-image and
self-acceptance
- Improves your physical condition, including increased
muscle mass and tone, improved circulation, digestion
and metabolic functioning
- It improves your blood circulation, which increases
your energy level, helping you to reduce any lethargy.
- Improves mood and outlook .
- It lifts up spirits and eliminates negative feelings
like depression or fatigue that often result in weight
gain.
- It builds up your will power to drop habits that
are not serving you, including smoking and eating
junk food
- Improves hormonal balance and reduces stress.
- Increases ability to focus on your objectives and
to incorporate new positive changes. It helps you
to eliminate the disturbing outside influences and
focus on your inner power.
- It builds up a stronger sense of one's self and
one's strength, less likelihood of being swayed by
outside influences
- It builds up your will power for weight loss and
gives your whole lifestyle a more solid foundation.
Deep breathing improves concentration and strength,
thereby building your willpower.
- Doing yoga strengthens your muscles, which inevitably
speeds up your metabolism. Yoga has a powerful stimulating
and strengthening effect on the endocrine organs and
thus can boost metabolism to burn more calories.
- The improved flexibility that yoga inevitably gives
you makes everything easier to do.
- Yoga exercises stretch the spine and hamstrings
(the backs of the legs), as well as the Achilles tendon.
Ultimately, this improves your posture, making you
stand taller and look leaner, even if you weigh the
same amount. This makes you feel thinner, encouraging
you to keep leading a healthy life.
- The standing poses, especially the warrior and lunging
poses are used to strengthen and tone the muscles,
build endurance, warm the body and increase caloric
output.
Yogic Diet
A yogic diet creates a holistic weight loss
program and positive long-term change. A yogic diet
is high in fiber, whole grains, legumes and vegetables;
and low in fat, animal protein and processed foods.
Keeping to a diet based on yoga principles would help
you us lose weight. The yoga diet is vegetarian -- free
of meat, fish and eggs. Fried and spicy foods and all
caffeinated beverages like coffee, tea, cocoa and cola
are also prohibited.
Yoga is a process and should be approached as such.
To practice yoga is to unite the body with the mind
and the mind with the soul. Focus on slowly increasing
your commitment to the yogic practices and enjoy the
gradual changes that appear. Ideally practice yoga 6
times per week or alternate your yoga practice with
other forms of movement taking one day off per week
for rest. It is a combined journey into learning how
to use the breath (pranayama) to move deeper and open
the body, preparing for meditation and allowing time
for deep relaxation (yoga nidra). |
