Yoga for Health & Well-being

by Tifany Henderson

These days, more and more people are doing yoga. For many, it is a great exercise regimen, something they do to stay in shape. Others may do yoga to reduce their stress. Although these are two benefits of this practice, yoga can benefit your health in many ways.

The most popular type of yoga is practicing the physical poses called asanas. When we place our body in these different positions, we tone the muscles and increase flexibility and range of movement. We strengthen the skeletal system, and support the nervous and circulatory system. As we continue to practice yoga, our coordination, posture and digestion improves. We can reduce the effects of stress while increasing relaxation by deliberately breathing in or out with each movement. This has a very calming effect on the mind as muscles are releasing tension and the breath becomes easy. Quite often at the end of a yoga session we will feel a greater sense of clarity, focus and well-being.

Many yoga poses help us internally. Twists help improve digestion and elimination by squeezing the internal organs. Balance poses help us improve our focus and concentration. Inversions help us move pooled fluids from our legs toward the upper body, move our organs back towards our chest, and are a natural face lift! As we learn the mechanics of the asana, we start to become more inner directed as we hold the poses and move in and out of them. When we are inner directed, we are better able to listen to our intuition, and make decisions about what is best for our health and well-being.

Practicing yoga can also benefit our health by reducing the stress we are feeling in our mind and body. When we reduce our stressful state, then our body can do what it does naturally, self-heal. When we move into a calm state our secondary systems, such as digestion, immunity and repair, start doing their work.

When our body is stressed, these systems are slowed or shut down because they are less important during an emergency. Unfortunately, as a culture we stay in a state of high alert and everything is an emergency. As a result, we have digestive issues, reproductive problems, body pain, depleted immunity, and sleep deprivation.

When we introduce yoga into our lives, it is important that it doesn’t become one more thing on our to-do list that adds to our burden of doing too much. It needs to be something we look forward to doing, a practice that refreshes and rejuvenates us. When we leave a class, we just feel better about the world, ourselves and whatever problems are going on in our lives…and we may even get a good night’s sleep!

Tifany Henderson teaches yoga in the far North Dallas area. She has been teaching Hatha Yoga for 12 years, and is certified in Relax & Renew® Restorative Yoga by Judith H. Lasater. Tifany teaches group classes as well as private sessions in studios and companies. For more information about Tifany, see her bio and scheduled classes at www.movestudio.com or email her at yogatif@yahoo.com.