The Many Benefits...

[admin]

Of Yoga

Inasmuch as body and mind -- or, if you will, the purely physical and the purely mental processes -- are part of a single organic whole, it stands to reason that whatever affects the one will of necessity, directly or indirectly, affect the other.

Therefore, just as emotional tensions often result in physical illness, so a state of physical well-being and relaxation can result in a more reasoned, relaxed approach to one's emotional problems and the tensions they bring on. And that, of course, is the first important step to being able to deal with them -- the first step out of your quandary and in the direction of a solution. One of the many benefits of Yoga is that it offers this type of relaxation.

However, a more relaxed outlook on life is only one of the benefits that Yoga has to offer. To follow its precepts means learning to get more out of yourself, in every respect. For instance, proper breathing and relaxation, the very cornerstone of all Yoga teachings, result in deeper, more beneficial sleep and a general sense of restfulness and well-being; and these in turn enable one to function at the very optimum of one's abilities. It is not just a question of building greater resistance to emotional storms with their possible aftermath of psychogenic illness; a rested mind and a rested body are, as any doctor will tell you, the best kind of health insurance.

So starts an entire beneficial cycle: a healthy body means a better-functioning body, it means added tone, improved functioning of the glands; and that in turn means better metabolism, muscle tone, skin tone, elimination and general vitality and vigor. It means eyes that sparkle, hair that shines and appetites time will not dull. In fact, it means slowing up the entire process of deterioration which we call aging and which in Western man starts so pitifully early.

As for the spiritual and mental results of Yoga practice, these soon become manifest in a fresh ability to make the most of one's inner resources. These are some of the most highly prized of the benefits of Yoga. As one's powers of relaxation increase, there follows an enormous improvement in concentration. Soon the student finds himself in control of his thoughts instead of being controlled by them. And so instead of living at about ten percent of capacity, as do most people, he learns to live at one hundred percent, fully, deeply.

He begins to do away with the fragmentation of his emotional wherewithal, escaping the whip of self-drive which can be so destructive, learning instead to think and feel clearly so that he wastes no more precious time in letting his mind wander in circles. Rather, he makes friends with himself until his whole organism functions as an integrated, positive whole, not a house divided. In psychoanalytical language so popular today, one might say it all adds up to the conquest of what has come to be recognized as the "neurotic personality of our times."

People have down the ages searched for the elixir of youth. They were doomed to failure. It was the Yoga sages who, without any magic whatsoever, offered the world something of this secret. For in reality it isn't eternal life that man longs for, but rather a long, good, useful life lived to the full and without fear -- fear of pain, of dependence, of invalidism and weakness and all the other miseries which can make old age a burden and an indignity.

It is a life so organized and so satisfying that in its twilight a person will be content to let go without regrets and without a sense of leaving too much undone. This, in many ways, is or can be our ultimate achievement.

With Yoga, your relationships with others will grow more harmonious and satisfying too, for nothing is so attractive to people as a harmonious personality. Naturally the world around you will then become a more attractive place for you to live in.

The benefits of Yoga are more numerous than you could ever imagine.


by Jimmy Cox
Learn How to Increase Your Energy And Reach Your Full Fitness Potential With Yoga
Visit www.yogapositions.net Article Source: Free Articles ArticleSnatch Article Directory

[Diana Daffner]

Although his presentation of benefits is worthwhile, I wish this author hadn't used the male pronoun to speak of a student, who might be - and most often is, actually a woman. Can't help it, I notice these things. Language matters.

That said, we're so lucky here on Siesta Key to have free (donations welcomed) yoga classes on the public beach, Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat mornings at 8 am, led by Avananda from Hawaii. Come join us!

[WQ|mag Admin]

Hi Diana, why don't you have Avananda join WQ and then she can let our readers know about her and her classes. Wes