8 Healing Benefits of Yoga
Feeling blue? Stressed? Tired? Whilst heading out to the pub for a drink or two might sound like a great idea, it isn’t going to give you long-term relief from your everyday stressors.Whether you’re simply looking to unwind, or wanting to improve your health,practising yoga may just be the thing.
The world has long appreciated the healing wonders of yoga. For as early as 2,000 years ago, people have been practising this mind-and-body exercise to achieve relaxation and improve their health. Even scientists agree to this – yoga works! In a study review conducted by the Duke University, researchers found that incorporating yoga in your lifestyle can relieve a myriad of health problems, such as:
Depression
The researchers found that practising yoga for 3 months resulted to a 20 per cent reduction in depressive symptoms while practising it for 6 months resulted to 40 per cent reduction. It was even more effective in helping depression patients overcome alcohol addiction.
Memory Loss
Always forgetting where you placed your keys? Then this is the perfect time to sign up for a yoga class! Practising yoga has been found to improve cognitive functions such as concentration, memory, and multitasking.
Schizophrenia
In another study reviewed by the Duke University, 18 adults who had schizophrenia gained substantial reduction in their symptoms after 2 months of yoga. They had lower aggression, more willingness to take medication, and overall improvement in symptoms.
Better Social Relationships
Yoga and meditation are two powerful mental exercises that allow you to gain heightened awareness about yourself, your behaviour and your relationship with other people. At the same time, they help you eradicate negative thinking and develop optimism. So what do you get from all these? Basically, you become more capable of building relationships with other people in a more meaningful way. Hence, you win more friends, confidants and supporters.
Self Confidence
Lack of self-confidence makes you doubt your abilities, which in turn prevent you from reaching your gaols. It really takes so much effort to stand on your head, hold your body weight on your hands, or simply unroll your mat to start doing yogic poses. But overtime, as you gain more understanding of your abilities and improve your way of thinking, you begin to think that there’s nothing you can’t do!Yoga can certainly help you become a better person.
Insomnia
Having problems nodding off? Insomnia is a chronic disorder characterised by the inability to initiate or maintain sleep. Practising yoga at least 3 times per week for 6 months has been shown to improve quality of sleep among senior citizens.
Binge-eating
After just 12 weeks of practising yoga, overeating dropped by 50 per cent among overweight women. They were also 26 per cent more likely to stick with their diet regimes, and were more physically active than those from the control group.
Compassion
Every day, you are confronted with so many situations that often make you feel sad, angry, or frustrated. Learning how to control your emotions is at the core of yoga. This ancient practise helps you build awareness of the ‘compassionate’you. Moreover, the breathing techniques involved in yoga helps your body calm down and free your mind from stress and other negative emotions. So all is left is love, hope and kindness.
Do you believe in the healing power of yoga? What other health benefits have you experienced while practising yoga? Share your comment below.
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