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8 Reasons Why I Do Yoga

I am a human, much like you, and that means we are consciousness somehow floating inside a meat sack supported by bones. The mind-body duality maintains the same mystery as it did when the ancient philosophers were thinking about thinking, and then thinking about the relationship of those thoughts to the physical form that contains them. Even though we all have minds and bodies, the complexities keep us in a state of wonderment – and this is why I yoga.

Yoga is what provokes me to examine the awe of existence in both the practical world and the esoteric. There are the physical poses that connect you to your body, but that is just 1 of 8 limbs of yoga. As you explore the full spectrum, yoga becomes a life practice and not just an exercise routine.

Here are my 8 reasons why I yoga:

1. Gets Me Out Of My Own Selfish Head
I don’t know about you, but the vast majority of my thoughts are about me. If I am hungry, what I should wear tonight, what I did yesterday, what I am going to do tomorrow. Me, me, me. I think about me all the time and it is the root of misery. The more I think about me, the less happy I am. Yoga reminds me to direct that internal obsession to the external needs of others. The more I prioritize helping those around me and caring about the beings on this planet, the more peace I feel inside myself.

2. Keeps Me Honest
Let’s face it. The last thing you want to do when hungover and smelling like stale American Spirits is a Downward Dog. A commitment to my practice keeps me away from making unhealthy and self-destructive decisions.

3. Makes Me Feel Strong
Using my body and improving throughout the years reminds me of how capable I actually am. I don’t need someone to help me with my bags, I can move furniture, throw my 35-pound 3 year old in the air, hike mountains, swim across lakes, run far… I don’t feel limited by my physical self and that is an empowering state of being.

4. Reminds Me To Breathe
I can’t tell you how many times I have almost lost my cool and psychically eviscerated someone who made me mad, but instead took a deep breath and remained calm. The ability to react to aggression with peace has drastically improved my relations with others and decreased my stress. The more I connect to my breath, the clearer I think, and that not only makes me a better person, but also a more patient parent.

5. Keeps Desires In Check
We all have desires that feel dire – when you are like “I need that piece of cake,” or “I must have those yellow suede boots” or “if they don’t kiss me right now my face will implode.” Of course in the moment it might seem necessary, but taking a step back to question why you want what you want will remind you that you want a lot less than you think you want.

6. Helps Me Stay Focused
In our modern world we are assaulted with distractions. And now that we have smartphones we have portable units that suck us into a vortex of being anywhere but the present. Come to think of it, when was the last time I emptied my bowels while not looking at Facebook? Every day I have to make a conscious decision to avoid the chaos of modern living and genuinely direct my attention to what is happening in front of my face – whether it’s work, chores, or spending time with others. I want to be a person who is actually there living it.

7. Helps Me Deal
Life can really suck. It can be wonderful and beautiful, but it can also totally blow. That is never going to change. You are going to have shitty days, and that is just a part of the human experience. Although we can’t control the complications of life, we can control how we deal with and react to these situations. I have been meditating daily now for over 5 years and I have to say it hasn’t made my life any easier, but it has made how I cope infinitely better.

8. Connects Me To The Divine
I lost my best friend the same year I started practicing yoga. I was 20 years old and totally devastated by the death of someone who meant so much to me. My mourning was overwhelming and I felt destroyed. The more lost I felt, the more I turned to the teachings of yoga for the answers.

It was during those years that I started to feel the eternal nature of love. How even though my friend was no longer tangibly with me, our connection was boundless. This, I think, was the greatest gift of all.

Toni Nagy – writes for Huffington Post, Salon, Alternet, Elephant Journal, Yoga Dork, Hairpin, Thought Catalogue, Muses and Visionaries.

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7 more important facts about YOGA

8. Drains your lymphs and boosts immunity
When you contract and stretch muscles, move organs around, and come in and out of yoga postures, you increase the drainage of lymph (a viscous fluid rich in immune cells). This helps the lymphatic system fight infection, destroy cancerous cells, and dispose of the toxic waste products of cellular functioning.

9. Ups your heart rate

When you regularly get your heart rate into the aerobic range, you lower your risk of heart attack and can relieve depression. While not all yoga is aerobic, if you do it vigorously or take flow or Ashtanga classes, it can boost your heart rate into the aerobic range. But even yoga exercises that don’t get your heart rate up that high can improve cardiovascular conditioning. Studies have found that yoga practice lowers the resting heart rate, increases endurance, and can improve your maximum uptake of oxygen during exercise—all reflections of improved aerobic conditioning. One study found that subjects who were taught only pranayama could do more exercise with less oxygen.

10. Drops your blood pressure

If you’ve got high blood pressure, you might benefit from yoga. Two studies of people with hypertension, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, compared the effects ofSavasana (Corpse Pose) with simply lying on a couch. After three months, Savasana was associated with a 26-point drop in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and a 15-point drop in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number—and the higher the initial blood pressure, the bigger the drop.

11. Regulates your adrenal glands

Yoga lowers cortisol levels. If tha

t doesn’t sound like much, consider this. Normally, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol in response to an acute crisis, which temporarily boosts immune function. If your cortisol levels stay high even after the crisis, they can compromise the immune system. Temporary boosts of cortisol help with long-term memory, but chronically high levels undermine memory and may lead to permanent changes in the brain. Additionally, excessive cortisol has been linked with major depression, osteoporosis (it extracts calcium and other minerals from bones and interferes with the laying down of new bone), high blood pressure, and insulin resistance. In rats, high cortisol levels lead to what researchers call “food-seeking behavior” (the kind that drives you to eat when you’re upset, angry, or stressed). The body takes those extra calories and distributes them as fat in the abdomen, contributing to weight gain and the risk of diabetes and heart attack.

12. Makes you happierFeeling sad? Sit in Lotus. Better yet, rise up into a backbend or soar royally into King Dancer Pose. While it’s not as simple as that, one study found that a consistent yoga practice improved depression and led to a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in the levels of monoamine oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol. At the University of Wisconsin, Richard Davidson, Ph.D., found that the left prefrontal cortex showed heightened activity in meditators, a finding that has been correlated with greater levels of happiness and better immune function. More dramatic left-sided activation was found in dedicated, long-term practitioners.

13. Founds a healthy lifestyle
Move more, eat less—that’s the adage of many a dieter. Yoga can help on both fronts. A regular practice gets you moving and burns calories, and the spiritual and emotional dimensions of your practice may encourage you to address any eating and weight problems on a deeper level. Yoga may also inspire you to become a more conscious eater.

14. Lowers blood sugar
Yoga lowers blood sugar and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and boosts HDL (“good”) cholesterol. In people with diabetes, yoga has been found to lower blood sugar in several ways: by lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels, encouraging weight loss, and improving sensitivity to the effects of insulin. Get your blood sugar levels down, and you decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure, and blindness.

First 7 important facts about YOGA

1. Improves your flexibility

Improved flexibility is one of the first and most obvious benefits of yoga. During your first class, you probably won’t be able to touch your toes, never mind do a backbend. But if you stick with it, you’ll notice a gradual loosening, and eventually, seemingly impossible poses will become possible. You’ll also probably notice that aches and pains start to disappear. That’s no coincidence. Tight hips can strain the knee joint due to improper alignment of the thigh and shinbones. Tight hamstrings can lead to a flattening of the lumbar spine, which can cause back pain. And inflexibility in muscles and connective tissue, such as fascia and ligaments, can cause poor posture.

2. Builds muscle strength

Strong muscles do more than look good. They also protect us from conditions like arthritis and back pain, and help prevent falls in elderly people. And when you build strength through yoga, you balance it with flexibility. If you just went to the gym and lifted weights, you might build strength at the expense of flexibility.

3. Perfects your posture

Your head is like a bowling ball—big, round, and heavy. When it’s balanced directly over an erect spine, it takes much less work for your neck and back muscles to support it. Move it several inches forward, however, and you start to strain those muscles. Hold up that forward-leaning bowling ball for eight or 12 hours a day and it’s no wonder you’re tired. And fatigue might not be your only problem. Poor posture can cause back, neck, and other muscle and joint problems. As you slump, your body may compensate by flattening the normal inward curves in your neck and lower back. This can cause pain and degenerative arthritis of the spine.

4. Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown

Each time you practice yoga, you take your joints through their full range of motion. This can help prevent degenerative arthritis or mitigate disability by “squeezing and soaking” areas of cartilage that normally aren’t used. Joint cartilage is like a sponge; it receives fresh nutrients only when its fluid is squeezed out and a new supply can be soaked up. Without proper sustenance, neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone like worn-out brake pads.

5. Protects your spine

Spinal disks—the shock absorbers between the vertebrae that can herniate and compress nerves—crave movement. That’s the only way they get their nutrients. If you’ve got a well-balanced asana practice with plenty of backbends, forward bends, and twists, you’ll help keep your disks supple.

6. Betters your bone health

It’s well documented that weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga require that you lift your own weight. And some, like Downward- and Upward-Facing Dog, help strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to osteoporotic fractures. In an unpublished study conducted at California State University, Los Angeles, yoga practice increased bone density in the vertebrae. Yoga’s ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol may help keep calcium in the bones.

7. Increases your blood flow

Yoga gets your blood flowing. More specifically, the relaxation exercises you learn in yoga can help your circulation, especially in your hands and feet. Yoga also gets more oxygen to your cells, which function better as a result. Twisting poses are thought to wring out venous blood from internal organs and allow oxygenated blood to flow in once the twist is released. Inverted poses, such as Headstand, Handstand, and Shoulderstand, encourage venous blood from the legs and pelvis to flow back to the heart, where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated. This can help if you have swelling in your legs from heart or kidney problems. Yoga also boosts levels of hemoglobin and red blood cells, which carry oxygen to the tissues. And it thins the blood by making platelets less sticky and by cutting the level of clot-promoting proteins in the blood. This can lead to a decrease in heart attacks and strokes since blood clots are often the cause of these killers.