5 Health Benefits of a Regular Yoga Practice

UPDATE: This is an update of an article was originally published on 2/22/23

Yoga is an ancient practice that has been around for centuries, and provides numerous health benefits. Practicing yoga regularly can help improve not only your physical strength and flexibility, but also, and just as important, your mental wellbeing. It can reduce stress levels, improve sleep quality, and even help with weight loss. In this post, we will discuss five health benefits of practicing yoga regularly.

1. Yoga Increases Flexibility and Strength: One of the primary benefits of doing yoga regularly is increasing flexibility, strength, and muscle tone in your body. Yoga helps strengthen muscles in your body as well as increase coordination, and joint mobility. When you regularly practice yoga, you can easily see the physical benefits when you are able to twist yourself into a pretzel or bend over with your head on your knee with no problem at all.

2. Yoga Keeps Your Heart Healthy: We all know that exercise is imperative to keep your heart healthy and strong. Yoga is a type of exercise that does not require any special equipment or facilities, so it is incredibly accessible for people of all levels of ability and means. While it may look like you’re not doing enough (like those bootcamp classes), do a few one breath, one movement sun salutations, and I promise you’ll feel the heat rise in your body and your heart pumping.

3. Yoga Can Help with Stress: One of the best forms of exercise for decreasing stress, yoga can reduce anxiety and depression, improve your mood. When we are caught up in a stressed out state, yoga gets us out of our head and brings us back into our body and helps us feel grounded. Being in our body is crucial in regulating our nervous system. When you are holding a challenging yoga posture and breathing into it, you are training your body to manage stress. This can also help manage symptoms of chronic pain because it improves your body's ability to focus on a single point while calming the nervous system.

4. Yoga Helps Improve Sleep: According to the CDC, more than 1/3 of Americans do not get the proper amount of sleep. Yoga has been shown to not only improve sleep quality, but also improves motivation and mood during the day. If you are having trouble sleeping, consider trying a modified version of yoga poses, like these, in order to help calm your mind and body so you can sleep more soundly

5. Yoga Increases Our Sense of Self-Awareness and Connection to Ourselves: To learn more about yourself, you first have to be mindful and take a step back from your busy life. The best way to do this is by doing yoga regularly. Yoga practice allows us to get in touch with our physical bodies in a very intimate way. By practicing regularly, we learn to meet our body where it is physically, and provide it what it needs. We also learn a lot about ourselves mentally through practicing yoga. We learn how our mind responds to physical stressors. We learn to nurture ourselves mentally and physically.

If you would like to learn more about yoga, check out Episode 9 of the Easewell Podcast, The Health Benefits of Yoga with Diana DeLatour, Owner of Be Hot Yoga Atlanta.

3 Reasons Why You Should Meditate

Meditation is an ancient practice that helps to bring peace and calmness to the mind. It has been used for centuries by many cultures around the world to help individuals find inner balance and clarity. It can also have a positive effect on your physical health, as it helps to reduce stress levels and improve your nervous system. This week we’ll break down 3 Reasons Why You Should Meditate.

1. Increased self-awareness & reflection: While meditation itself is a simple act that involves focusing on one's breath, mantra or repetitive sounds in order to achieve a state of deep relaxation, it is not easy. Our minds wander naturally, and your mind will definitely wander when you start meditating. However, this practice teaches us to be come aware of that fact, and take an observational approach to it. That means acknowledging our mind wandered, letting it go, and returning to our breath, or mantra. This practice increases our awareness of our thoughts and emotions, and can help us become less reactionary. This type of self-reflection is key to understanding ourselves and how we can best navigate our environment.
   

2. Lowers stress and anxiety: Meditating regularly is one of the best ways to reduce stress levels and lower anxiety. Our nervous system’s response to stressful situations is to go into protect-mode. Our minds race with every possible thought of what could happen to us. Meditation practice helps us slow down and ideally stop those racing thoughts. This is called practice for a reason. We are practicing quieting our minds. Like any other skill we want to get better at, it takes practice. It can be helpful to play a music track or relaxing sounds of nature while we practice. The point of meditation is not to concentrate on anything in particular, but rather to recognize the breath moving in and out of the body. Remember your breath when you are aware that thoughts are coming in and going out. You might notice their speed or intensity change as they pass through your mind. You can also try counting to 3 or 4 on your inhales and exhales to help concentrate on your breath.
   

3. Improved Overall Health: The mind-body connection is incredibly strong and important to understand. Everything that goes on in our minds, our body witnesses and stores the impacts of. As we quiet our minds with meditation, our bodies reap the physical benefits as well. Studies show that meditation can improve cognitive function and decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia. It can also, via the increase in production of melatonin, reduce our risk for disease such as cancer. Meditation has also been shown to increase immune system activity.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of meditation, ask your Chiropractor.