Yoga is the yog or the connection between the mental and physical. Anasana is the effort the body makes to reach a pose with controlled inhalations and exhalations and attains physical benefits of good health through optimum mind control.
Each turn or twist the body makes to replicate an asana is the body’s answer to the ask of the mind that calls upon the physical self to collect itself through rhythmic breathing and focus on a particular physical entity whilst observing the going ons of the body…i.e. flow of blood, sound of a throbbing heartbeat or the aches and pains the body is facing.
Mind through Body
The mind is a subtle entity and the body a more palpable one. To control the body is easier than to harness the dynamic mind. It is the constant flow of water in a gurgling brook or the energetic flapping of a bird’s wings, it is unending, ever-expanding and ever-curious. If mind were the wind that assists the kite, the body is the kite that flutters and flows upon the tug of the main thread of which we have the sole control.
Yoga as is common knowledge is an ancient science going back centuries and has modelled itself on the natural ecosystem. Hence asanas replicate the animal and the plant world.
It is the bridge that transcends a worldly experience and translates into a larger surreal experience as one travels through the physical self and releases itself to reach out to a world which is far beyond its physical capacity. It is another word for one’s existence realization.
Physical perks of yoga practice
Benefits of yoga on physical wellbeing are manifold –
- Benefits the spiritual and mental wellbeing by opening up clogged emotions and pent up feelings.
- Replaces negative (Nakaratmak) with the positive (Sakaratmak) thinking.
- Identifies the weaker muscles or organs of the body, through aches and pains and quivering muscle masses.
- Effectively deals with stress and mental health issues hence decreased level of anxiety and depression, which are preserves of the modern day life.
- Brings out physical and intellectual sweat to master yogic practices and control the going ons of the mind.
- Known to optimize systolic and diastolic pressures.
- Helps attain samamkaya – to align each and every part of the body without deviation, retraction or contraction.
- It lets energy flow freely through the chakras whilst controlling body heat and allowing awareness to travel through each cell and vein.
- Helps improve muscle strength and controls common issues like arthritis, backpain, joint aches, migraine, sinus, heart burn to name only a few.
- Yoga gives posture a pump up and helps align the spine with the rest of the body, this prevents posture related injury.
- Yoga assists the joint fluids and protects cartilages and bones from wear and tear.
- Yoga helps one lift one’s own weight through asanas and uses the body weight as a prop to achieve optimum weight loss and muscle strength.
- Yoga is a boost to the blood flow and makes the hand and leg muscles more agile. It is known to pump more oxygen to the cells. Advanced yoga poses that demand a greater twist wring poisonous blood out of the body and allow new oxygenated blood to flow to the primary organs.
- Yoga improves oxygen carrying hemoglobin and red blood cells and cuts the level of clot promoting proteins in the blood. It, therefore, deals with heart attacks and strokes with better effectiveness.
- Yoga raises the combative forces of the body to take on the physical hazards of the external nature. Pollution, stress, weight gain, fatigue, aching muscles, bad spinal column health, breathing problems to name a few.
- Yoga gives tremendous importance to the anterior spine and regular practitioners of yoga enjoy optimum flexibility and movement for the umber, thoracic and anterior spine.
- Yoga and pranayama massages interior organs without the need for a surgery. It loosens tight muscles and allows blood to flow seamlessly.
- Yoga and pranayama are passive reflections and opens the minds gates to newer possibilities.
- Yoga and pranayama improves nerve health, it ensures the generated energy during the practices reaches the gates or the ends of the nerves.
- Mindful breathing techniques of pranayama and asana practices are a boost to the happy hormone serotonin and finds it’s correlation with elevated levels of happiness and better immune function.
Yoga is the body’s natural response to attacks on its subtle and larger entities, it is a way of existence when not just the inhalations and exhalations but also the pauses between them (Kumbhaka) are stressed upon. Yoga is refreshing and invigorating and opens up clogged pores to facilitate the flow of energy and life.
However, any yoga practice requires the practitioner to be under the tutelage of a seasoned yoga teacher, who is not just a regular practitioner, but also a sensible human being who is privy to the vast possibilities of this life force and the orbit shift it can bring to one’s day to day existence and also long term well-being.
Om Shanti
Namaste!!!
