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Yoga Benefits

Yoga Benefits

What exactly is yoga? Is it when we put the body in a certain position, or something else? The word “yoga” comes from Sanskrit and means “unity”. As its etymology signifies, yoga is the unity of body and mind, or on a deeper level, the unity between our lower and higher beings. There are some benefits of yoga.

A girl is practicing yoga.

Yoga

In today’s world of sports and exercise, many see yoga as a way to unite their being with a slim body. In a modern society obsessed with thinness, many of us are attracted to yoga only out of vanity. But, you should not expect your experience with yoga to be reduced only to elasticity and achieving a perfect figure. You shouldn’t even expect to like these workouts, unless you’re willing to do everything slowly and reconsider. For this reason, we will present you with a few things that you should think about before approaching yoga classes.

It’s not all in the poses

The word “yoga” in our culture usually means a type of exercise when the body takes different poses (on yoga mat or somewhere else), which are called ASANA. However, this is only one aspect of yoga, which is physical. When people use the word yoga, they mostly talk about hatha yoga, which is very physical. But if we look only at the physical side of yoga, then its meaning is lost.

A girl in yoga Asana.

Instructors of yoga harmony explain, however, that the roots of hatha yoga are in allowing the body to sit in meditation for a long time, which is another aspect of yoga.

Ignore fashion

If you have decided to go to yoga classes, you may think that you need to equip yourself with a certain type of clothing. You can buy a top and pants especially for yoga, if you feel good about it. But yoga instructors do not expect “special” clothing, but emphasize that people dress normally. There are instructors who recommend not wearing too comfortable clothes, because the transition of the body from asana to asana with too wide pants and a T-shirt is difficult.

Don’t compete

Many of us measure the success of our training with lost centimeters or a hand on the scales. There is no place in yoga for any comparison or competition. One of the basic ideas of yoga is exactly how to learn to relax and not to burden yourself. Yoga should be something you want to do, not something you have to.

Yoga students are practicing Asana on different ways.

Comparison with other training participants is, so to speak, forbidden. Just as you should not compare yourself with other students, you should not compare yourself with instructors. One of the most common mistakes is the opinion that you have to perform the pose (asana) in the same way as the instructor or some other person in the class did. Keep in mind that all bodies are different.

Conclusion

If you do not find what you wanted at the first meeting with hatha yoga – do not give up. There are many branches, there are many forms of yoga that you can try before moving on. And, although hatha yoga can provide you some benefits witch immediate relief from stress, it may take you a few weeks to learn each asana.