Answering Some of My Starting Questions…
How Can Yoga Improve my Every Day Lifestyle? What are the Physical and Mental Health Benefits?
While not all of them are scientifically proven, there are many benefits to practicing yoga. From physical to mental well-being, implementing yoga into your everyday life is beneficial in many different ways. In physical terms, a few benefits of practicing yoga are a boost in energy levels, the strengthening of muscles and the relief of chronic pain (such as back pain) over time (American Osteopathic Association, 2018). Yoga can also help improve mental health by relieving stress, boosting concentration and encouraging the practice of mindfulness (American Osteopathic Association, 2018). As yoga decreases stress by lowering cortisol levels (a main stress hormone) and boosting serotonin (a “happy” hormone), overtime it may also help people overcome their depression (Link, 2017). These few benefits are just the brink of the positive change that yoga can bring into your life, and I’m excited to further explore them and see how my lifestyle will improve overtime!
What are Some Beginner Yoga Routines/Poses?
Some beginner poses that I already utilize when I stretch are the cat pose, bridge pose and the cobra pose, all of which help me release tension in my lower back (Yoga Journal)! I also sometimes use the child’s pose, but it is still slightly uncomfortable as I am quite unflexible! I’m excited to learn more poses and find certain ones that will specifically help the back pain that I experience! The website where I got the previously mentioned poses (Yoga Journal) has lots of articles and information that will help me greatly in my upcoming yoga journey and I’m glad that I stumbled across it! Some yoga styles that I will focus on are “Iyengar” which focuses on alignment and posture and “Yin” which is slow-paced and helps relieve muscle tension (Cruikshank, 2017).
What are My Next Steps?
I will now continue to practice yoga everyday and lightly document how my physical and mental health improves over time. So far I have practiced about 10 minutes a day, which seems to be working well for me! I hope to eventually increase my daily time to around 30 minutes per day, but right now it’s hard to find the time and to focus for that long! I will continue to research new poses and routines to work on, and include them in my weekly updates, along with interesting articles that I happen to come across! Im excited to have you all follow me along on this journey!
Sources
- American Osteopathic Association. (2018). Benefits of Yoga. https://osteopathic.org/what-is-osteopathic-medicine/benefits-of-yoga/
- Cruikshank, T. (2017, November 29). The Definitive Guide to Yoga. Healthline; Healthline Media. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercises/definitive-guide-to-yoga
- Editors, Y. (n.d.). Yoga Poses for Beginners. Yoga Journal. https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/poses-by-level/beginners-poses/
- Link, R. (2017, August 30). 13 Benefits of Yoga That Are Supported by Science. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/13-benefits-of-yoga#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2