10 ways Yoga changed my life & can change yours too!
When I started doing yoga and meditation, I felt like my body is inflexible and I am not made for yoga. Forget about practicing headstand, when I was thinking about it, I felt like falling again and again. But, over the years I realized that yoga is made for people who are inflexible. It’s not about whether you have a flexible or inflexible body, it’s all about the start we need to do. I always believe that yoga and meditation are not about moving your body parts but it’s all about knowing yourself and your body. It is the alignment of body, mind, and soul. Yoga helps to unite these three aspects of our life. It gives me the strength to rejuvenate and concentrate on my goals. Here are the 10 ways yoga changed my life and it could change yours also.
1. Stress Relief
Nowadays many of us are going through stress. There may be many reasons starting from work-related pressure to relationship issues. But, regular practice of yoga helped me to lower the stress hormone levels in my body. When stress decreases, it lowers blood pressure and heart rates. It helped me to ease the symptoms of anxiety, depression and much other stress-related problems I was suffering due to job-related issues.
2. Boost the immune system
Before practicing yoga and pranayama, I was getting sick once in every month with cold, cough and fever. Injuries took time to heal. These problems were happening due to my lower level of the immune system. But, when I started practicing yoga, slowly and steadily I boosted my immune system and now I rarely get sick due to cold or a cough. Moreover, my digestion capacity also improved significantly.
3. Improved Breathing
Regular practice of yoga taught me to be aware of my breathing. Slower and deeper breaths helped me to improve my lung function and increase the amount of oxygen intake into my body. While exhaling, it helped me to flush out the toxins from my body.
4. Flexibility
As I mentioned above, I was carrying the most inflexible body with me. Today, I can practice advanced yoga poses without any difficulty. But, it didn’t happen overnight. Regular practice and focused mind helped me to achieve this milestone overtime by lengthening my ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It gives me a better posture by improving my body alignment.
5. Increased strength and stamina
We all like to be strong and rich in stamina. Yes, yoga practice built my muscles stronger and increased my strength from head to toe. It helped me to improve my core stamina and arm strength to enter into practicing the advanced poses.
6. Weight Management
Well, in this case, I am the happiest and satisfied person. Yoga not only helps you to reduce your body fat and weight but also help you to be fit and not allowing you to deposit extra fat with zero cost.
7. Improved blood circulation
Yoga helped me to improve circulation of blood in my body. When I started practicing different inversion poses like headstand, shoulderstand, and handstand, oxygenated blood flow to my body’s cell got improved.
8. Comparison with others
When I was in my childhood, I used to compare myself with others. There were many reasons starting from the study, the way people look and the way they behave. But, when I started practicing yoga and pranayama, I realized that I am unique in myself and there is no reason to compare my life with others. My body and my life are totally different from the rest of the world. When you stop comparing yourself with others, you get maximum time to build yourself to be a better human being.
9. Patient & Self-control
I was always in a hurry to achieve anything and everything. But with the yoga practice of yoga, I realized that just like each asana takes time and effort to master, everything else in life also come to you at right time with your dedication and hard work. When I took an oath to bring yoga into my daily life, I brought discipline into my life. It taught me how to control my mind, body, and soul.
10. Peace of mind
Regular practice of yoga helped me to be mindful and increased the awareness of being present at the moment. Yoga means union, union of your body, mind, and soul. It helped me improve my memory, concentration power and most importantly I learned to be at peace with myself. Meditationprovided me a platform to go deeper into the spirituality and to understand who really am I? I started listening to this gadget (body). This is the most efficient gadget in this world.
Yoga is not about performing or practicing most difficult postures, it’s all about enjoying the journey while recognizing and nourishing the light within.
Regular practice of yoga helped me to change my life for a better cause, it can change yours too!Enjoy this beautiful gift from God and bring physical, mental and spiritual equilibrium in your life.
If you feel this article is helpful to you, then share your experience by commenting below. Rakesh Yoga would be happy to hear from you!
