COVID-19 has given more people than ever the opportunity and need to practice yoga. We have had a lot of extra time at home and many people have been experiencing more stress and anxiety. Yoga is a science that takes care of your body and mind. The yoga postures are designed to work the body from the inside out. Certain yoga poses will massage glands and organs like the colon, helping with digestion and elimination. I like to think of yoga as a massage from the inside out.
Many of the postures work to strengthen the spine and keep your spine flexible. As we age our back can get stiff and tight and yoga will help keep your spine young and flexible and reduce back pain. I like to say that yoga is the fountain of youth, after all we are only as young as our spines. Yoga also takes care of your muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and joints moving your body through every range of motion. It may sound strange but a good analogy here is “floss for your body,” because yoga touches those hard to reach places that you would normally never pay attention to. Did I mention strength, stamina, balance, flexibility and cross-training? No wonder athletes are seeing the benefits of yoga to improve their game.
All of these benefits that I have mentioned are important, but the #1 benefit of yoga is reducing stress and anxiety. One of the largest factors in our health besides diet and exercise is stress. Yoga is a breathing class and to change the breath from your normal shallow breathing pattern to breathing deep, you have to think about it and when you think about it, it becomes a meditation. This gives our minds a break from the constant chatter going on and this allows us to step back and observe all those thoughts that are causing stress and anxiety. When you observe and notice, you are able to get insight and clarity and drop old patterns of thought that are not serving you. Breathing deeply also helps us to access our parasympathetic nervous system, getting out of our “fight or flight” mode. When we are in our parasympathetic nervous system we feel relaxed and sleep better.
As you can see, yoga is truly a body-mind science. Both physical and emotional needs are addressed. Through observation and insight, you are able to drop the old patterns of thought and embrace more love, joy, and peace. After all, the greatest gift we can give ourselves is to focus on our health so we can utilize our talents and creativity and can take care of those around us and bring happiness and joy to others.
