Benefits of yoga

Ten Undeniable Reasons You Should Be Doing Yoga 

and the science to back it up

Thanks to social media and marketing, we tend to associate yoga with an elite lifestyle, expensive designer yoga outfits, thin and flexible women, capturing the perfect impossible pretzel pose for instagram, and somehow feeling zen during it all.  In reality, no one ever knows old yoga really is.1  It is widely believed to be of Indian origins and over 5,000 years old, with Maharsh Pantajali authoring the Yoga Sutras, or “handbook” of the modern classical  eight-limbed yoga 1,500 years ago.  Yoga means reunion or “to yoke” in Sanskrit, and is the practice of trying to find a blissful harmony between mind, body, and soul through breath, meditation, and movement.   This is done by combining meditation, breathwork, and physical postures, or asanas. 

Yoga was, and is, all about feeling happy and healthy in the bodies we currently have. In fact, the U.K. is one of many countries that has integrated yoga therapy into their National Health Service (NHS) program to help alleviate symptoms from non-communicable diseases and lessen smaller health problems that could lead to bigger (and costly problems) in the future like low back pain.3 At MentCouch, our yoga therapy aligns with the roots of yoga, serving as a tool to help you find balance and relaxation.  Here are just ten of endless reasons why you should be doing yoga now:

1. Yoga doesn’t require much time or energy.

   1. Yoga is all about focusing on your breath.  Even on the most exhausting days, laying down with a straight spine and meditating on your breathing counts as your daily yoga.  If you’re feeling up to it, you can try incorporating some of your favorite pranayama2, also known as yoic breathing patterns.

   2. Yoga can also (and usually) incorporates some movement, so for days when you feel more active you can do a more vigorous vinyasa flow, and on the less energetic days you can enjoy one or two relaxing asana, such as viparita karani, or legs up the wall to release low back and hamstring tension.

   3. Yoga can fit your mood and energy level, so it’s easy to commit to a simple goal of 10 minutes of yoga everyday and incorporate yoga regularly into your life.1

5. You don’t need to be fit or flexible to start or enjoy yoga.

4. 1. Yoga isn’t about being able to touch your toes so much, as what happens along the journey to being able to touch your toes.  So in other words, you really don’t need to be flexible at all to start yoga, as long as you are willing to set the ego aside and explore all of the different possibilities in yoga that feel the best and are safest for your body.  

   2. Yoga is also sometimes used as a rehabilitation regimen for people with physical injuries, so you definitely don’t need to be a pro athlete to enjoy yoga!1

   3. You can start yoga at any time (with a doctor’s approval) and don’t need to prepare or train to start.   Just wait until 2 hours after you have eaten! 

6. Yoga helps physical health.

   1. “Yoga has been used to alleviate problems associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, migraine headaches, asthma, shallow breathing, back-aches, constipation, diabetes, menopause, multiple scle-rosis, varicose veins, and many chronic illnesses. It also has been studied and approved for its ability to promote relaxation and reduce stress.” (p.434 Frost)

   2. As a side benefit, yoga can also help tone up the body and build strength and flexibility!1

   3. The mindfulness and focus on the yoga mat transfers into other areas of our lives, helping control and maintain better eating habits.8

   4. Yoga is a great tool to aid in weight management and  overall physical health such as strength training, flexibility, mobiolity, balance and cardio exercise.4

6. Yoga has been proven to aid in good sleep.

   1. Yoga has also been scientifically proven to release additional levels of melatonin and serotonin, which work towards improving sleep. 7

   2. Yoga also helps relieve physical tension in the body, similar to getting a massage, which makes sleep just physically feel better.

   3. The combination of movement, relaxing breathwork, and meditation come together to promote better sleep, even in people who have medical sleep issues like insomnia or pain-related sleep issues. 

   4. LIke most specific benefits of yoga, the different elements of yoga overlap, creating multiple benefits for the mind, body, and soul with short semi-regular sessions.

7. Yoga helps improve mood, confidence, and self-esteem

   1. Trying our best to be conscious in our breath and movements during yoga  helps achieve the maximum benefits from yoga.Yoga is a way to train ourselves to let go of the ego and need for competitiveness, by simply focusing on the breath and learning to work with the bodies we have, slowly exploring our range of motion.  

   2. “Yoga promotes increased γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels, thereby having a positive impact on depression and anxiety.” (p. 476 Miyairi)  In translation, doing yoga naturally releases chemicals in your body to help alleviate depression and anxiety!  

   3. Yoga naturally helps us reduce cortisol, which makes our bodies automatically less stressed and anxious..7

   4. A regular yoga practice also helps us release melatonin, serotonin, and dopamine.7  These naturally occurring chemicals in our bodies act to regulate our moods!  They reduce anger, help us learn and retain information, increase metabolism (so we gain less weight), and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

8. Yoga promotes good posture

   1. This seems at first like such a small benefit, but it’s actually huge because good posture helps reduce back pain and headaches!

   2. Straight posture is integral to yoga while sitting during pranayama (breathing), meditation, and for maintaining proper alignment in various yoga asana (poses). 8

   3. Yoga also helps build core muscles which makes good posture much easier to maintain! 2

   4. Straight posture also happens to lend to the illusion of a more confident, thinner, and taller appearance.

9. Yoga is a great pain management tool.

   1. Yoga helps to manage physical pain, especially from long-term chronic conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease, menstruation, pregnancy, and even limb loss.1  

   2. Yoga has been proven to reduce chronic inflammation as well as reduce pain in migraines when the vagus nerve is stimulated. 8 The vagus nerve runs from the brain all the way down through the throat and to the abdomen.  The best poses to stimulate the vagus nerve in yoga are poses that open up the neck and shoulders, like matsyasana, or fish pose. 

   3. Yoga is a great tool for pain management because it doesn’t interfere with other medications you may already be on, and doesn’t interfere with your cognitive awareness.  (This means that you’re still sober and safe to drive when you use yoga as a pain management tool!)

   4. Yoga delivers results for pain management engaging our focus on syncing breath and movement in a meditative way, as well as the relief from physical stretching.  

10. Yoga reduces stress and encourages relaxation

    1. Studies have shown that “yoga practice contains the central ideas that physical posture and alignment can influence a person's mood and self-esteem, and that the mind can be used to shape and heal the body.”(p. 385 Longe)2

    2. This improves happiness as well as well as job performance and social relationships.  So being less stressed out makes social interactions easier and better and makes you more productive at work!

    3. Feeling relaxed also plays into getting better sleep!

    4. Yoga works to reduce stress because it helps totally relax our bodies both physically and mentally.  Yoga assists in pain management, physical health, appetite, weight loss, sleep, and overall mood. All of the different aspects of yoga fit beautifully into each area of our lives, complimenting one another to result in total relaxation, especially when practiced semi-regularly!

11. Bonus: Yoga is good for pregnancy!

    1. The benefits of yoga for non-pregnant people translate wonderfully for prenatal yoga practitioners!  Yoga during pregnancy, with a doctor’s approval, is evident to have so many advantages. 7

    2. All of the general health benefits of yoga apply to expectant parents:

• Strong connection to your body (and baby!)

• Reduce inflammation

• Manage pain without medication, especially headaches and low-back pain

• Develop strategies like certain breathing, meditations, and poses to manage the mental and physical aspects of giving birth

• Restful sleep

• Improved mood, reduced depression and anxiety

• Better balance, mobility, and flexibility

• Greater relaxation

3. It is important to practice prenatal yoga with an experienced and qualified yoga therapist, due to the special variations and precautions that need to be taken during prenatal yoga.  Some of these precautions would be taking care to not put too much pressure on the abdomen and allowing for balance difficulties. 

In summary, as long as your doctor approves, there’s absolutely nothing holding you back from starting yoga. It’s a low-cost activity that is scientifically proven to aid in overall physical and mental health, and you don’t need much time, space, or equipment to do it!  You will gain the blissful total relaxation benefits from a regular yoga practice with any type of body at any fitness level, and it’s never too late to start!