essay on i love yoga

Essay on Yoga

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Essay on Yoga in 150 words

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Yoga is an ancient practice originating from India, known for its physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. Combining physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation, yoga promotes overall well-being. It enhances flexibility, strength, and balance while reducing stress and anxiety. Yoga cultivates mindfulness, improving focus and promoting inner peace. The ethical principles of yoga guide practitioners towards positive values such as compassion and truthfulness. It is inclusive and suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels. Yoga has gained global popularity and recognition, leading to the establishment of International Yoga Day on June 21st. It is a transformative practice that improves physical health, mental well-being, and spiritual growth. By embracing yoga, individuals can find harmony, balance, and inner peace, enhancing their overall quality of life.

Yoga is an ancient practice that originated in India and has gained global popularity for its numerous physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. It is a holistic discipline that combines physical postures, breathing techniques, meditation, and ethical principles to promote overall well-being.

The practice of yoga brings harmony between the body and mind, enhancing flexibility, strength, and balance. It improves physical fitness and promotes relaxation, reducing stress and anxiety. Regular practice of yoga helps to increase mindfulness, improve focus, and cultivate a sense of inner peace.

Yoga is not just a physical exercise but a way of life. It encourages self-discipline, self-awareness, and self-transformation. The ethical principles of yoga, known as the Yamas and Niyamas, guide practitioners toward compassion, truthfulness, contentment, and other positive values.

The beauty of yoga lies in its inclusivity. It can be practiced by people of all ages and fitness levels. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced practitioner, yoga offers a space for personal growth and self-exploration.

Yoga has transcended cultural boundaries and has become a global phenomenon. Its popularity is attributed to its effectiveness in promoting physical health, mental well-being, and spiritual growth. It has also been recognized by the United Nations, which declared June 21st as International Yoga Day, highlighting its significance as a holistic practice for humanity.

In conclusion, yoga is a transformative practice that benefits individuals physically, mentally, and spiritually. Its ancient wisdom and holistic approach make it a valuable tool for managing stress, improving fitness, and promoting overall well-being. By embracing yoga, individuals can cultivate a balanced and harmonious life, finding inner peace and contentment amidst the challenges of the modern world.

Title: The Transformative Power of Yoga – Cultivating Harmony in Body, Mind, and Spirit

Introduction :

Yoga, an ancient practice originating from India, has gained global popularity for its holistic approach to health and well-being. Combining physical postures, breathing techniques, meditation, and ethical principles, yoga offers a comprehensive system for cultivating harmony in body, mind, and spirit. This essay explores the origins and philosophy of yoga, its physical and mental benefits, and its profound impact on personal transformation.

Origins and Philosophy

Yoga traces its roots back thousands of years to ancient Indian civilization. It is deeply rooted in Hindu philosophy and encompasses various paths to self-realization. The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word “yuj,” which means to unite or join. It refers to the union of the individual self (jiva) with the universal consciousness (Brahman).

The practice of yoga is guided by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a foundational text that outlines the philosophy and principles of yoga. Patanjali describes yoga as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind, leading to a state of inner stillness and self-awareness.

Physical Benefits of Yoga

Yoga offers numerous physical benefits that contribute to overall health and well-being. The practice of asanas, or physical postures, improves flexibility, strength, and balance. It enhances body awareness, alignment, and posture, reducing the risk of injuries. Regular yoga practice can alleviate chronic pain, improve cardiovascular health, and enhance the functioning of the respiratory, digestive, and immune systems.

Mental and Emotional Benefits of Yoga

Beyond the physical realm, yoga provides profound mental and emotional benefits. The practice of pranayama, or breathing techniques, calms the nervous system, reduces stress, and promotes relaxation. Meditation cultivates mindfulness, improving focus, concentration, and emotional stability. Yoga fosters self-acceptance, self-compassion, and resilience, helping individuals navigate life’s challenges with greater ease. It promotes mental clarity, creativity, and a sense of inner peace.

Ethical Principles of Yoga

Yoga is not just a physical exercise but a way of life. It encompasses ethical principles known as the Yamas and Niyamas, guiding practitioners towards a virtuous and mindful existence. The Yamas include non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, moderation, and non-possessiveness. The Niyamas include purity, contentment, self-discipline, self-study, and surrender to a higher power. These principles encourage individuals to cultivate positive relationships, live with integrity, and embrace self-reflection and personal growth.

Personal Transformation and Spirituality

Yoga is a transformative practice that goes beyond the physical and mental realms, opening doors to spiritual growth and self-realization. It provides a path for individuals to connect with their inner selves and tap into their innate wisdom and intuition. The practice of yoga fosters a sense of interconnectedness, recognizing the oneness of all beings and the unity of the universe. It invites individuals to explore their spiritual nature and cultivate a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life.

The Global Impact of Yoga

Yoga’s profound impact has transcended cultural boundaries, reaching people of diverse backgrounds and belief systems worldwide. It has gained recognition for its ability to improve physical health, mental well-being, and overall quality of life. In 2014, the United Nations declared June 21st as International Yoga Day, highlighting its global significance. On this day, people around the world come together to celebrate and practice yoga, emphasizing its role in promoting peace, harmony, and unity.

Conclusion :

Yoga is a transformative practice that offers a holistic approach to health and well-being. It harmonizes the body, mind, and spirit, fostering physical strength, mental clarity, and spiritual growth. Through the practice of asanas, pranayama, meditation, and ethical principles, individuals can experience profound personal transformation. Yoga’s impact extends beyond the individual, promoting global unity, peace, and interconnectedness. As more people embrace yoga, its benefits continue to ripple through society, creating a positive impact on individuals, communities, and the world at large. By cultivating inner harmony, practicing mindfulness, and embodying the principles of yoga, we can lead more fulfilling, balanced, and purposeful lives.

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Why Yoga Is Good for Your Body and Brain, According to Science

When I (Dacher Keltner) was 18, I wandered into a yoga class in my first year of college, hosted on a basketball court in the school’s gym. At the time, some 40 years ago, yoga had mystical, somewhat cult-like connotations. While a handful of students waited on mats, the teacher arrived dressed in white clothes, looking like Jesus. After playing a song on a wooden flute, and reading a few Haiku poems, he led the class through a series of yoga postures. Yoga, just getting off the ground in the West, would prove to be a salve for my anxious tendencies.

Yoga may very well be one of our oldest happiness practices. Archeologists have discovered figurines in India that date from 5,000 years ago that represent what appear to be people in yoga postures. More certain is that yoga emerged some 2,500 years ago in Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India as part of Hinduism.

Many in the West are familiar with one vein of yoga practices: the asanas, a Sanskrit that translates to “postures.” The full tradition is much broader, and encompasses pranayama (mindful breathing), meditations, chanting, sutras (yoga philosophy by the sage Patanjali), kriya (internal cleansing movements), and ethical principles related to kindness, selflessness, non-materialism, and nonviolence. Over its history, yoga has evolved into many forms, from Tai Chi and Qi Gong to hot yoga and core power yoga.

Today in the U.S., more than 36 million people practice yoga on a regular basis. They likely practice one of a couple kinds of yoga that derive from Vedic yoga and involve 12 basic postures, with names like plow, fish, cobra, locust, and bow pose. In addition to these metaphorical descriptions that add significance to the body’s movements, this kind of yoga also involves the teaching of deep breathing patterns and a focus on being present and mindful .

Does this practice work? Indeed, in the past decade, an emerging science of yoga has been uncovering the significant health and happiness benefits of this ancient practice. And it suggests that we should all think about hitting the mat more often.

The health benefits of yoga

Yoga is a practice of the mind and body, and it brings about health and happiness benefits through its direct influence on our nervous system.

Central to yoga is bringing awareness to our breath, also known as the “ujjayi pranayama,” the breath of fire. Deep breathing, like the kind cultivated in yoga, activates the vagus nerve, the large branch of nerves that begins at the top of the spinal cord and stimulates activation in the vocal apparatus, muscles that move the head and eyes, heart, respiration, digestive organs, and gut. Elevated vagal tone is good for a host of bodily functions, like digestion and immune function.

Some forms of slow yoga breathing involve contracting the glottis muscles in the throat, which improves the heart’s capacity to efficiently regulate blood pressure, and there’s some evidence that practicing yoga can reduce blood pressure .

In a recent study , 29 participants were randomly assigned to a four-month training program of either stretching or yoga respiratory exercises (ujjayi breath). During that time, the yoga group improved their inspiratory and expiratory pressures, the low/high-frequency ratio of heart rate variability, and heart rate variability itself—all markers of better cardiovascular and respiratory function . Simply stretching didn’t have the same effects.

Practice yoga

Jaylissa Zheng has created GGSC-tailored yoga videos, free of charge, that combine mindful body movements with science-backed meditations, available at JlissYoga.com.

In another recent study from a team at UC San Diego, 38 people who participated in a three-month yoga retreat showed a decrease in inflammatory processes , an immune response related to high blood pressure, diabetes, and autoimmune disease.

Given these shifts in the cardiovascular and nervous systems, it makes sense that yoga is good for our health. A regular practice can help loosen the muscles and connective tissues around the joints, which in turn can reduce aches and pains. In one recent study , 75 rheumatoid arthritis patients were randomly assigned to an eight-week yoga program or a waitlist. Rheumatoid arthritis, a painful condition that involves tender, swollen joints, is estimated to affect 54 million Americans each year and cost the health care system $19 billion . The patients who practiced yoga saw significant improvements in their experiences of physical pain, general health, vitality, and mental health, and these reductions in pain lasted nine months after the study ended.

According to other studies , practicing yoga can help reduce people’s stress, anxiety , and depression —perhaps better than traditional medication if you practice daily for over a month. Yoga has also been found to be an effective way to help people overcome addictions . In light of these findings, it’s not surprising that regular practitioners of yoga report being happier .

How yoga makes us happy

How does yoga make us happier? It might be related to its effects on heart rate variability and the vagus nerve, according to a review of 59 studies with a total of nearly 2,400 participants. People with higher heart rate variability and vagus nerve activity tend to be kinder and more compassionate, qualities that make for a happier life.

Yoga also shifts our brain chemistry . In one study, Chantal Villemure and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health used magnetic resonance imaging to examine gray matter in the brain, which naturally declines with age. They found that yoga practitioners had less grey matter decline in regions of the cortex involved in the experience of positive states such as joy and happiness.

Finally, yoga has been found to increase activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex, brain areas that are associated with empathy, gratitude, and kindness. In other words, practicing yoga may help us experience more positive emotions and be more oriented toward others, both of which can create lasting happiness over time.

Eight years ago, I (Jaylissa Zheng) moved to New York. It was a move that left me suffering from many of the struggles that are rampant today: anxiety, sleeplessness, poor appetite, and a sense of despair. Medication did little, if anything, for my suffering. So I turned to yoga; I became a yoga teacher. And in performing and teaching this ancient happiness practice, I have found an embodied source of ever-richer resilience. Perhaps you, too, can find new meaning in one of the human race’s oldest happiness practices.

About the Authors

Jaylissa Zheng

Jaylissa Zheng is a student at UC Berkeley, a yoga teacher ( JlissYoga.com ), and (as of the Fall) a Ph.D. student, where she hopes to integrate yoga into her clinical practice.

Dacher Keltner

Uc berkeley.

Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. , is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence and Born to Be Good , and a co-editor of The Compassionate Instinct .

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‘It improves everything’: 17 reasons to love yoga – even if you are sceptical

Would you welcome the health benefits of yoga, but find yourself put off by the spirituality? Cast those doubts aside ...

Y oga is like faith, or grief, or dog ownership: from the inside, it is incredibly obvious and you would no more question it than you would breathing in and out (although, to be fair, with yoga there is a lot of chat about breathing in and out). From the outside, it is baffling: it looks incredibly slow and boring, unless it looks extremely fast and challenging, and how can those two styles even share the same name?

Some poses, it is hard to believe the human body capable of, while others look more like napping. Can it possibly have the physical, psychological and spiritual impact its practitioners claim? And, if so, which form of it is best for you? Here’s what some old hands say, and what I’ve learned from my own adventures in yoga .

What if you don’t believe in the spirit? Are you still allowed to do yoga, and will you be doing it properly?

Meta-studies are pretty clear on the physical benefits: if you do yoga regularly, you will see improvements to balance, flexibility, strength, cardiovascular health and muscle tone.

However, to describe it in purely physical terms is to miss its philosophy. It is, says Amy Ku Redler, a yoga teacher of 30 years, “about connecting our physical, psychological, emotional and energetic beings – connecting ourselves to ourselves”. A yoga person wouldn’t try to sort the benefits into mind and body. They would take it as obvious that if yoga reduces anxiety, it will help a whole suite of inflammatory disorders caused by (and, in turn, exacerbating) stress: arthritis, poor digestion, broken sleep. It may be quicker to just say: it improves everything.

I asked my friend, 53-year-old Kirsten Lyle, on her way out of a vinyasa flow class in Ramsgate, Kent, why she had been doing it more or less her whole adult life. “The culture of it was never appealing to me,” she said. “When I was young, I’d listen to the introductory breathing section and think: ‘Yeah, get on with it. Get to the exercise.’

“But it starts to make sense. I don’t want to use corny words like holistic, but you realise the breathing is really helping you make the shapes in your body, and get the space in your mind. You have to go whatever mood you’re in. That’s the point – you have to show up.”

What’s this obsession with breathing?

It’s a core element of yoga, known as pranayama. Matching your breathing to the rhythm of your yoga posture can enable you to either hold or go deeper into a pose, for which you might otherwise be too restless or rigid. It cuts both ways: you could see the pose itself as a way to get deeper into the breathing, which is what will bring the clarity of mind that the whole thing’s supposed to be about.

Is there a plausible explanation for all this?

Scientists are increasingly interested in “ interoception ”, AKA the eighth sense. This means “listening in to the signals that your body gives you and responding accordingly”, in the words of Nahid de Belgeonne, author of the forthcoming Soothe: The Book Your Nervous System Has Been Longing For. Maybe your neck is tight or you’re shallow breathing; you have standard aches and pains; or a creeping sense of unease that’s making your heart race. These are things we spend our lives trying not to listen to but – newsflash! – that doesn’t make them go away.

Peter Blackaby, author of Intelligent Yoga, which is considered the bible of yoga and anatomy, writes about the fallacy of trying to understand the body mechanically, each muscle sorted into a neat, bookended entity and held responsible for a particular movement. It’s derived from the study of cadavers, and bears little resemblance to a living human body. As Ku Redler explains: “You have fascia, you have ligaments, you have feelings, you have emotions, you have thoughts, you have joints – there is a cognitive and emotional element to the way your body feels, even if you’re not interested in it.”

If we accept that the body is not a machine, and that mind and body are never separate, it starts to make sense that you may feel distress in your muscles, not your mind. As Blackaby writes: “Patterns of distress are always expressed through tightening and holding.”

Part of being able to hear your body’s signals will come from slowing down and focusing on your breath, which tricks you into a meditation of sorts. And part will come from movement, “paying attention to the quality of the movement, not the outcome,” De Belgeonne says.

Can you still do yoga if you don’t want to meditate?

“I’d say you could do, but you could be missing a connection with your inner world,” Ku Redler says. “Nobody’s walking around without feelings. Even if you don’t believe in meditation, you can’t deny the fact that you have thoughts and feelings and a physical body, and that those things are connected.”

The synchronous breathing element, however, is non-negotiable. “It’s a really good bridge between mind and body. If you’re not breathing, you’re not doing yoga,” De Belgeonne explains. “You’re just throwing shapes. You might as well join a circus class.”

Turning back to the science, the meta-study Exploring the Therapeutic Benefits of Pranayama (Yogic Breathing): A Systematic Review found that yogic breathing helped with respiratory disorders, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). If you have any experience of COPD in your family, you’ll know how surprising this is, because nothing works.

How do you know where to start?

Whatever anyone says later about yoga classes and their pitfalls – and they’re going to say a lot – they are a good gateway if you’ve never tried it before. The first class you try will probably lodge itself in your brain as the One True Yoga, whatever you settle on subsequently. So think about what you need, where you are in your life, and what the original purpose of each style was.

What is ashtanga?

This was huge in the 90s, a power yoga style that Madonna credited with getting back in shape after she had her daughter, Lourdes Leon, in 1996 (which was ridiculous as she was never not in shape – she looked like a python who’d swallowed a football – but never mind). It was originally devised, De Belgeonne says, “for young boys, to help them use up their sexual energy in a culture where they’re not allowed to touch girls”. You keep each pose for only five breaths, and it’s meant to be extremely physical – part of the point is that sweating profusely is cleansing. It’s good for cardio, muscle tone and weight loss.

What are restorative yoga and yin yoga?

If you’re not a celibate young boy, restorative or yin yoga may suit you better, being much slower, with poses held for up to 20 minutes and an emphasis on contemplation. Both styles focus on healing and stillness, so they’re good if you’re recovering from an injury, surgery, a broken heart, etc.

What is hatha?

This isn’t a fast-moving flow style either: it concentrates on the fundamentals of yoga with slower, sustained poses. People call it gentle, because it doesn’t look like a workout. “But sometimes if you’re in a hatha pose, it’s unbearable,” Lyle says. “You think: I cannot stay in this pose for one more second. So that’s when you have to breathe, and that’s when you realise the breathing works.”

It’s that stillness that I always found so off-putting, from a distance. When teaching people who are neurodiverse, De Belgeonne noticed: “They can’t sit and be still – it torments them.” But, she adds: “I don’t think many people can. Probably for every 30 minutes of meditation, you’ve got five minutes when you’re really still.”

What’s vinyasa flow?

This is quite fast, and very popular in the yoga-industrial complex because it’s recognisable from other gym classes, such as Zumba, with extra woohoo. That doesn’t mean it’s without merit, but going in as a novice to a big class, “you’re looking to copy and perform the best version of the position you’re taking”, De Belgeonne says. “So you’re not listening to the signals in your body.”

People love it for its intensity and dynamism: you could never get bored in a vinyasa flow class, though arguably boredom is the nursery slope of enlightenment.

What is Iyengar?

Tirumalai Krishnamacharya was the original modern yogi, and from his practice came two branches – ashtanga (devised by Pattabhi Jois) and Iyengar (named after its founder, BKS Iyengar). It’s a very subtle form, focussing on alignment, and comes with props such as belts, blocks and bolsters to help you. It is amazing for posture: you almost feel your inner tectonic plates have shifted into a better place afterwards.

What is Bikram?

This was devised by Bikram Choudhury in the 70s in the US, and follows a rigid 26-pose format. It is quite fast-paced, in very high temperatures, and is said to release toxins. However, most toxins are eliminated by the liver, kidneys and intestines, not through sweat. But joints are more mobile and muscles stretchier in the heat.

Looking back, Bikram epitomised everything yoga isn’t supposed to be about – celebrity-obsessed, abrasive and materialistic. Choudhury faced multiple rape allegations in the 2010s, which he denied, at one point saying: “Why would I have to harass women? People spend $1m for a drop of my sperm.”

He fell out of fashion, but the heat (usually slightly lower than his 40C (105F), but not much lower) persisted. To get a sense of how extremely hot it is, the first class I went to, the instructor said: “Don’t push it if you don’t feel well. Certainly don’t faint – it’s not worth it, and it’s annoying for me.”

What do people mean when they say industrial yoga?

Repetitive, class-based yoga is what happened when yoga met the western fitness industry and sought to compete with it: practice got harder, faster and more dynamic, and it became more performative. Ku Redler summarises it as “buying something from Lululemon [sportswear brand], making a shape and sticking it on Instagram. The mainstream yoga world at the moment has sadly lost the inner world, the inner strength that it should be about.”

Large classes especially can get very repetitive, whereas “the brain really loves novel things”, De Belgeonne says. “As soon as you’re moving by habit, you’re not checking in with yourself.”

The trick is to find a teacher you trust and go for it.

What about gimmick yoga?

I had a friend who did laughing yoga at Glastonbury and said it was the most uplifting experience of her life. You can even do Goga (yoga with goats). “When it goes to rocket yoga, boxing yoga, naked yoga, it’s gone mad,” Ku Redler says. “Yoga is a healing art, and the healing will depend on the injury – whether it’s psychological, emotional, physical or energetic.” Laughter is, famously, quite healing but it’s unlikely to help getting a goat involved.

Should you be aiming to perfect demon poses like the crow?

I actually can crow (she crowed). It looks impressive because you’re tipped forward in a crouch and balanced only on your hands, but I was only able to do it after I decided to stop caring about it and focus on getting the basics like downward dog right.

“‘Perfect’ is missing the point,” Ku Redler says. “You’re trying to enable a sense of peace and tranquility, freedom from all of our jibber-jabber, liberation from what keeps us trapped in our own being. If you’re looking for perfection, you’re still staying quite trapped in an image of what perfection means.” Besides, says De Belgeonne: “When the shit hits the fan in your life, handstands aren’t going to help you. Breathing will help you.”

How would you go about building your own self-practice?

You probably want some one-on-one teaching: it would be hard to arrive on your own at the “fundamental basics”, Ku Redler says, “of alignment, of grounding, and of release”.

She adds: “It’s very simple, but you need a lot of experience as a teacher to be able to hold the simplicity. My teacher was like a rock. It’s about the ground, connecting to your feet and to your head, so that you’re becoming more present but less rigid.”

De Belgeonne says: “A useful way to think about your home practice is to include all the movements of your spine. Rotation; twists; elongation – a downward dog with knees bent so that the spine can hang with length; lateral flexion or side-bending; inversion, which would be the dolphin, the crow, the headstand, poses in which you’re the wrong way round; extension [back bends]; flexion, which would be forward folds.

“Then add in balance (standing poses), and coordination (cross-lateral movements, which means any time you move one of your limbs across the centre of your body to the other side). This is a mobilising sequence you can do every day, and you can keep popping in to classes to get some teaching.”

Also, though, you should mix it up. Ku Redler says: “I’m a firm believer in not doing the same thing every time in your practice. I get why people do it because it means that you don’t need to think, but thinking is good.”

If you’re practising at home, be mindful that thinking has changed around flexibility. It used to be the holy grail, but de Belgeonne says “you need some stability around your joints”. “You’ve got women teachers in their 60s and 70s having hip operations because they were over-flexible. That’s yoga’s dirty secret.”

What about yoga on the internet?

Adriene Mishler is an American YouTuber with more than 12 million subscribers, who does courses that sound like classic, bang-it-out, capitalised yoga – Revolution: 31 Days of Yoga; Airport Yoga: a 13-minute travel sequence. But of course, as it’s online, you can pause and tweak and personalise it all, and you’re not responding to the pressures and exposure of a class.

People swear by Mishler because she embodies her own first principle, as Lyle describes it: “The hardest part is showing up on the mat. Whatever mood you’re in, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got really bad stuff going on, or you’re feeling really energetic and don’t feel like centring yourself. You have to show up.”

Mishler may be annoyingly serene, but she does break down a lot of the barriers to sustained practice, like money and time.

Finally: will yoga make you fit?

Well, some forms make you buff, but that’s not really the point. If you want to get really fit, go for a run.

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