History Of Yoga

Yoga, as many ancient traditions, have many of thousands of years of history behind them. This is a tool that originated in ancient India. The goal of yoga was to create an equanimity state of mind. It’s about creating space for prana to flow. Breathing and thought regulation cultivated through yoga can expand to everyday life. It’s about finding out the truth of who you are.

Benefits Of Yoga

Yoga has many benefits of mind, body, and spirit.

1. Fitness

Yoga has been shown to be a very effective form of exercise to become fit. It also has been shown to balance the HPAT axis.

2. Brain function

A meta analysis of 11 studies shows that yoga improves brain function of the hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and brain networks including the default mode network. Also, it may reduce the risk of age related neurodegenerative disease.

3. Stress reduction

A meta analysis of 42 studies has concluded that yoga reduced evening cortisol, waking cortisol, ambulatory systolic blood pressure, resting heart rate, high frequency heart rate variability, fasting blood glucose, cholesterol and low density lipoprotein, compared to active control.

4. Inner peace

Yoga has been shown to have an enhanced sense of spirituality in test subjects. They were also shown to have more insights and wisdom.

5. Body awareness

Yoga has been shown to significantly improve body awareness and tactile awareness.

Different Types Of Yoga

1. Hatha

This is a foundational form of yoga that essentially going from pose to pose while breathing.

2. Vinyasa

This is flow yoga because it is a flow sequence. This is also about repeating a sequence of poses.

3. Ashtanga

This is a form where you practice a series. They start as beginner moving to advanced.

4. Iyenger

This is a form is about holding the poses correctly, and also involves the use of props. It also really focuses on precision.

5. Bikram

This is also known as hot yoga with a lot of poses and breathing.

6. Yin

This is a very slow and relaxing practice.

How To Start Yoga

There are many ways to start yoga. You can find a teacher, or you can start your own practice. It’s important to find the right style for you and the right energy. Sanskrit is also a language that was used in yoga as a form of sound medicine.