Thursday, September 4, 2008

All about yoga

By Dan Levy

Many people are crazy about yoga. The reason most people practice yoga is that it makes them feel better and feel more in shape. The different poses and postures make their body flexible and healthy. Yoga for most is the best natural way to relax and unwind. If you are interested in keeping your body in shape, this might be the best exercise for you.

Did you know that yoga could help fight certain illness that may come your way? There has been research that proved yoga helps you to control anxiety, reduces asthma, arthritis, blood pressure, back pain, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, epilepsy, diabetes, headaches, stress, and more.

Yoga has a lot of benefits and advantages. All in a day's work, it can reduce tension and stress. Of course, after a heavy day, you will feel that your muscles have been stuck up and you will feel wasted.

If you do practice yoga, you may see an increase in your self-esteem. It is important to gain confidence so that you may face people without worry.

Yoga is good for the body in increasing your muscle tone, strength, stamina, and flexibility. If you are too heavy, or conscious about your body shape, yoga can help you lower your body fat and help you stay in shape. Yoga exercises can burn excess fat and give you the desired figure that you want.

If you need time to relax and forget your responsibilities, then yoga will be good for improving your concentration and can enhance your creativity. Yoga helps you to think positively because it can help keep you free of your anxieties. If you have a fresh mind, you can easily think good thoughts.

Your body needs to relax often. Sometimes, at the end of the workday, you can feel exhausted. After some of the hardest days, we may not find time to unwind because troubles at work are still on our mind. Yoga helps you to clear your mind and create a sense of calmness and well-being.

Yoga exercises help you improve your blood circulation. Your organs and veins need to be exercised for them to function properly. Yoga can help stimulate your immune system, which can help keep you free from diseases.

Some people practice yoga to get enlightened. They believe that yoga will help them lift their spirit and keep them relieved. Yoga works differently for people, be it spiritual, emotional, psychological, mental, or physical.

Many people think that yoga is only for spiritual, or religious, people. But that myth is wrong. Even if you are not religious, you can do yoga. You will see and feel the difference, and at the same time find out how it works for you.

Due to the pressure and demands of life, we are stressed out and forget the essences of our lives. We tend to lose touch with the ones we used to spend time with, even ourselves.

We find ourselves rushing most of the time with deadlines and hassles at our jobs. This leaves us little time for our minds to wander and have that physical awareness.

These are a few things that yoga can provide. Occasionally, dedicate some time to relax and unwind, which only yoga can do.

Visit Dan Levy's website, A Beginner's Guide To Yoga. This will teach you the basics about yoga & beyond, including the different types & great resources. Visit today at: http://www.den-tex.com/beginners-yoga/

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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Staying Well Mentally with Yoga

By Mike Cosentino

Yoga is one of the most complete disciplines there is for both physical and mental health. With a history stretching back for centuries, yoga combines mental and physical well-being with its wide-ranging practices involving exercises for the body, improvements in digestion and the elimination of waste and toxic substances, deep breathing and meditation.

One of the key things that yoga practice does for you is to increase the oxygen content in your blood stream. The yoga breathing techniques with deep, controlled inhalation and respiration bring fresh, oxygen-containing air into your lungs where the exchange occurs and the oxygen passes into your system, a nutrient for all of your vital organs, including your brain. Yoga puts such importance on breathing that it even specifies breathing exercises specifically for the left and the right nostrils. By breathing in through the left nostril for example, you direct oxygen-enriched blood to the opposite side of your brain, that is to say the right side, where you typically do your creative and intuitive thinking. If you want to develop your logical thought processes, then yoga suggests that you breathe through your right nostril to get your left half of the brain into action. Incidentally, either exercise will also develop the cross-brain communication as well as you work towards overall brain fitness.

Yoga for thinking as well as doing

Yoga also extends into the realms of philosophy with its concepts such as mindfulness, a technique designed to develop calmness and relaxation. This technique is built on the notion of putting mentally interfering concerns and stresses at a distance to prevent the polluting effect that these things can have on mental well-being. Mindfulness also positively enhances other faculties such as the ability to focus constructively, to take better decisions more quickly and to do this in a relaxed mental state. If you think back to the last time that you had to take a decision under pressure, you’ll see what a valuable tool this can be.

These benefits extend into more energy and a more positive outlook. Yoga practitioners often speak of mental stability and performance that they never knew before starting yoga, with the reduction in the number of mood swings that often reduce a person’s capability to function effectively. When you consider that the number of mood changes per day can attain 200 on a regular basis, you can see that this can represent a wasteful and unnecessary distraction. This positive spiral of mood stabilization, positive thoughts and focus then brings yet more advantages, such as the easier memorization of information.

No artificial additives

In common with a number of other activities shown to enhance mental health, brain fitness well-being and self-esteem improvement, it is the better quality blood arriving in the different areas of the brain that results from the practice of yoga and that stimulates the production of the natural and positive chemicals in the brain. Because yoga relies solely on the natural functions of the human organism, and is automatically in tune with its subtleties and complexities, no artificial medication can hope to compete in terms of healthiness, suitability and lack of any undesirable side effects.

Mike Cosentino is a professional development expert, entrepreneur, and a top sales trainer read more of his topics or subscribe to his free newsletter at www.mikecosentino.net

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