DON'T WANT TO THINK? - THINK YOGA

What is Yoga?

The word yoga, from the Sanskrit word yuj means to yoke. It means "union" or a method of discipline. Yoga combines 8 different limbs: the Yamas (restraints), Niyamas (observances), Asana (postures), Pranayama (breathing), Pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), Dharana (concentration), Dhyani (meditation) and Samadhi (absorption). This then precedes to Samadhi (liberation, enlightenment).

Yoga is for everyone

Yoga is available to all generations and fitness levels. It is tailored to your lifestyle and ranges from hot yoga to power yoga to relaxation yoga and prenatal yoga. If you are a beginner, Hatha yoga would be great for you. It focuses on basic postures at a comfortable pace. If you want to increase strength through using more of your own body’s resistance, power yoga may be right for you. If you are ready for a deeper practice, Advanced Yoga, or Bikram, also called “hot yoga,” may be just what you are looking for. In Bikram yoga, the room temperature is set to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, resulting in greater elimination of toxins from the body through the increased production of sweat. No matter your fitness level, fat percentage, or health history, yoga has a place for you.

Yoga for Flexibility

Yoga poses work by stretching your muscles which helps you move better and feel less stiff or tired. At any level of yoga, you'll probably start to notice benefits soon. In one study, people improved their flexibility by up to 35% after only 8 weeks of yoga.

Strike a Pose for Strength

Practicing Ashtanga and Power Yoga is very physical but will help you improve muscle tone. Since the poses involve five full breaths, it is more focused and entails deeper concentration. Breathing, posing, moving and increasing flexibility happen altogether which solicits a new level of discipline in your mind and body. But even less vigorous styles of yoga, such as Iyengar or Hatha, can provide strength and endurance benefits. Such poses are downward dog, upward dog, the plank pose and build upper-body strength. The standing poses, especially if you hold them for several long breaths, build strength in your hamstrings, quadriceps, and abs. Poses that strengthen the lower back include upward dog and the chair pose. All poses can build core strength in the deep abdominal muscles.

Better Posture from Yoga

When you're stronger and more flexible, your posture improves. Most standing and sitting poses develop core strength, since you need your core muscles to support and maintain each pose. With a stronger core, you're more likely to sit and stand "tall." Yoga also helps your body awareness. That helps you notice more quickly if you're slouching or slumping, so you can adjust your posture.

Breathing Benefits

Yoga usually involves paying attention to your breath, which can help you relax. It may also call for specific breathing techniques. However, yoga typically isn't aerobic, like running or cycling, unless it's an intense type of yoga or you're doing it in a heated room. Another one of the benefits of yoga is that stretching and holding of postures also causes muscles to lengthen, which gives the body a longer, leaner look.

Less Stress, More Calm

Yoga helps relieve stress, unclutter the mind and helps you get more focused. Some yoga styles use meditation techniques that help calm the mind. Focusing on your breathing during yoga can do that, too.

Good for Your Heart

Yoga has long been known to lower blood pressure and slow the heart rate. A slower heart rate can benefit people with high blood pressure or heart disease and people who've had a stroke. Yoga has also been linked to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels and better immune system function.

Good for your Bowels

The digestive system gets back on track when the stretching in yoga is coupled with a healthy, organic diet, which can relieve constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and acid reflux.

There are various paths of Yoga that lead toward a comprehensive system. They are:

Hatha Yoga — a system of physical postures, or Asanas, whose higher purpose is to purify the body, giving one awareness and control over its internal states and rendering it fit for meditation.

Karma Yoga — selfless service to others as part of one's larger Self, without attachment to the results and the performance of all actions with the consciousness of God as the Doer.

Mantra Yoga — centering the consciousness within through Japa or the repetition of certain universal root-word sounds representing a particular aspect of Spirit.

Bhakti Yoga — all-surrendering devotion through which one strives to see and love the divinity in every creature and in everything, thus maintaining an unceasing worship.

Jnana (Gyana) Yoga — the path of wisdom which emphasizes the application of discriminative intelligence to achieve spiritual liberation.

Raja Yoga — the royal or highest path of Yoga, immortalized by Bhagavan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita and formally systematized in the second century B.C. by the Indian sage Patanjali, which combines the essence of all the other paths.

Now lay out your mat, load this video on your smart device and try out this Morning weight loss yoga exercise!!!