Yoga Reduces Stress and Keeps Your Brain Active

Yoga is an ancient Indian practice that is becoming increasingly popular in today’s world. It is an effective procedure to keep your body healthy and free from diseases. Along with this yoga improves concentration and takes good care of your mental health too. Practicing yoga every day keeps your bone joints and muscles flexible and can significantly reduce the chances of occurrence of several types of disorders. Yoga can be of different types based on the process of breathing mechanism and can be divided into several forms of ‘asanas’ that are required for the proper functioning of the overall body parts and better harmonization of the organs, bones, muscles, and immune system.

What Is Yoga?

Yoga is a form of exercise that connects both the mind and the body. This practice has been followed in ancient India and many parts of Asia since the early Vedic ages. The regular practice of yoga has few side effects and it is significantly known to provide a better immune system to your body and peace and serenity in your mind. There are several poses and postures for practicing yoga that keeps your mental health stable and effectively help to relieve stress, anxiety, panic, and even depression. Moreover, yoga chanting effectively increases mindfulness and reduces restlessness of your mind.

There are several important elements of yoga. Some of them are listed below:

• Posture: Practice of Yoga requires a correct posture that helps to keep our bones and muscles flexible and involves various types of movements like flexing, stretching etc.

• Breathing. One of the most important components of yoga exercising is breathing, that are also called breathing exercises. Yoga includes control and relaxation patterns of breathing because such exercises are directly connected to our physical wellbeing and the stable state of our mind.

• Meditation or relaxation. A major portion of yoga practicing involves meditation that not only increases mindfulness and concentration, but also relaxes the mental stresses, anxiety and keeps our minds active and sharp.

Health Effects Of Practicing Yoga:

1.Yoga makes your body flexible:

Recent studies now suggest that compared to many other chemicals or medicines, yoga is effective enough to make our bodies flexible. Yoga postures can be practiced by almost anyone to gain muscle flexibility, but it is particularly effective among adults and aged individuals because when you grow old, your bones and muscles gradually lose their strength and flexibility. According to recent experiments, regular yoga practice will be effective enough to keep your muscle movements flexible and this will also help you to prevent any kind of bone disease at an older age.

2. Yoga keeps your mental health stability:

Among the new experiments conducted recently in parts of the USA, it is apparently clear that there is almost 84% of the population are the victims of mental health-related issues like stress disorders, panic attacks, anxiety, and depression. Psychological studies appreciate the power of meditation and a process of yoga known as ‘sound bath’ that includes chanting of the mantra “OM.” These processes called ‘asanas’ are so powerful that they can improve concentration tremendously and reduce chronic stress, anxiety, depression, or any other mental health issues that may be the impact of prolonged stress. In fact, yoga Nidra, a form of yoga helps to get rid of any kind of stress disorder and helps to relax your mind.

But it is important to keep in mind that, if the mental health issue reaches a clinical or pathogenic condition, then it is highly advisable to seek help from a professional psychologist or psychiatrist.

3. Yoga may be anti-inflammatory in nature:

Experts say that if your body contains disorders like chronic inflammation, then you are likely to develop some harmful diseases from such conditions such as acute heart disorders, causing heart strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrests, or any such cardiovascular symptoms, bone-related diseases like arthritis, conditions of high levels of sugar in blood causing type 2 diabetes, and Crohn’s disease. It has been scientifically proved that a regular practice of yoga asanas can significantly help to reduce the chances of developing the inflammatory disorder and will also prevent the risks of getting other harmful diseases or several types of chronic adversities of your health. (1)

4. Yoga helps to increase body strength:

Apart from helping with body-building, practicing yoga asanas in different postures and intensities are effective enough to make your body strong and disease-free. Some oriental studies infer that yoga asanas help to reduce the chances of developing diseases in your body that often make your body weak. In this way, practicing yoga increases strength both in your physical body and in the mind. Apart from these, the necessary practices of breathing in yoga asanas are very much effective to make our respiratory systems strong and also relieve from conditions like breathlessness or shortness of breath.

5. Yoga keeps your brain active:

It is always rightly pointed out by psychologists that yoga practices connect both the mind and the physical body. Studies are now showing that practicing yoga improves the nervous connection in the brain and yoga-like chanting and meditation helps to increase concentration by accelerating the effective functions of various neurotransmitters and neuron cells in the brain that helps to improve overall brain functioning.

6. Yoga helps to improve immunity:

In today’s world, immunity is the most important part of your health. It has been scientifically proven that doing regular yoga asanas will help you to strengthen your immune system that will effectively help you to combat any kind of health disorders that may result in various adversities. In fact, recent research is showing that practicing yoga every day will help you to fight any type of inflammatory disease and will also help to boost your immune system that will considerably reduce the chances of your vulnerability to developing various types of diseases.

7. Yoga helps to maintain body balance:

Experts always advise that it is very much necessary to keep your body strong and maintain a proper balance of the body. If your body posture and balance are disrupted, then you will find difficulty in performing every single activity in your daily life, for example standing straight or bending down. Studies are suggesting that practicing yoga every day, for instance, padmasana, pranayam, chair yoga, or adaptive yoga helps to keep your body structure in proper balance, and it also maintains an erect body posture. (2)

8. Yoga helps to keep your heart healthy:

Yoga involves effective and intensive breathing exercises, for example, pranayama, that not only reduce disorders like shortness of breath but also help to treat heart-related problems. It also treats circulatory obstructions and helps in the better carrying capacity of oxygen through the blood in all other parts of the body. Moreover, yoga exercises help to relieve symptoms of high blood pressure and reduce the chances of having difficulties in the chambers of the heart, mostly arteries. Recent studies are revealing that yoga exercises and yogic breathing like the pranayam help to relieve cardio- respiratory tract related difficulties.

9. Does not cause any side effects:

Experts say that yoga is a healthy form of activity that requires synchronization of both the mind and the body and thus it does not involve any kind of adverse impact on your body. Yoga is considered safe to perform among young people, adults, and aged individuals. It does not pose any kind of risk in the future, as it is most commonly found among medicinal pills, syrups, or health supplements.

10. Yoga improves the quality of life:

According to experts and recent studies, it has been found that those who practice yoga and related breathing exercises can live a happy, healthy, and quality life. This is because doctors say that if one can practice yoga and breathing exercises every day, then they can not only increase their average life span and can significantly lower the risks of developing harmful diseases in the body. This will further help to enhance their mental health also and keep them happy for longer life.