Ten Reasons to Try Yoga

Can you believe we are more than one quarter of the way through 2021 already? Time flies by, whether we can keep up with it or not. To help it all slow down and keep myself calm and centered, one type of exercise I really enjoy is yoga. The mental, emotional, and physical benefits of it are actually pretty cool, if you give it a chance. Not convinced yet? In this week’s post, I’ll be sharing with you ten reasons to try yoga. Maybe you’ll even give it a try after this, but even if you don’t, you’ll still find out some cool facts about this activity that so many of us are obsessed with.

Yoga for the Win

1. It’s been around a long time.

Some 5,000 years ago in Northern India, the Indus-Sarasvati civilization developed and documented what we know of as the beginnings of the practice of yoga. Fast-forward to the fact that it is still around today and seems to even be increasing in popularity, and it becomes difficult to argue its long-standing relevance. Just in America, 36 million of us are practicing yoga.

2. It can ease back pain.

I’m an avid runner and bicycler, but back in my early running days I used to be plagued with back pain. So much so, for a while I thought I’d have to give it up and that thought was heartbreaking to me because of my love of running and its endorphins. Then a friend of mine introduced me to yoga and the difference was almost instantaneous. After one session, I felt a general sense of released tension and less pain, and after I started making a regular habit of yoga, eventually the back problems I got from running almost completely went away. I suppose this shouldn’t be too surprising since yoga strengthens our core back and ab muscles and releases tension in tight muscles. Keep in mind, I’m no doctor and this is not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution, so it might not be the answer to your back pain or whatever other physical ailments you are struggling through. But if your level of health allows it and your doctor thinks it is a good idea, giving yoga a try might be worth it for you too.

3. Practicing yoga can raise your immunity over time.

Scientific research has shown that yoga has a positive long-term effect on the immune system by strengthening it at the molecular level. I think we all could agree that being sick is no fun, so if doing an activity such as this can help me avoid getting sick as often or as badly, count me in.

4. It can help you to focus better.

As humans, sometimes we simply find it difficult to concentrate. Maybe next time you can’t seem to focus, take a short break and try a little yoga. Not a lot of time is required to reap the benefits. Simply one 20-minute session substantially boosts cognitive performance.

5. It improves anxiety.

For both adults and children, yoga is shown to lower that feeling of being overwhelmed and the lingering effects that anxiety has on both adults and children, which organically leads to improved social skills and the ability to keep a better handle on emotions.

6. It helps clear your mind.

Have you ever laid in bed at night, wide awake with a head spinning with a hundred different thoughts all at once? Or maybe that’s just me. I seem to always be mulling around a grand many different things in my mind, some serious and others simplistic. Meditation is an excellent solution for many people’s busy minds, but for whatever reason that never worked for me. I just end up having an inner dialogue telling myself to stop thinking so much. I think because yoga requires some level of physicality, that helps distract my mind, at least for a while. Science suggests that yoga can slow down our brain waves, which is said to lead to more peaceful and restful sleep.

7. It’s good for your heart.

Our heart works hard for us, day in and day out. Not so surprisingly, yoga has some serious heart benefits by causing improvement in cardio metabolic health. Overall, this results in lowering cardio-vascular risk factors. This makes it a reasonable solution for many of us looking to give our hearts a little bit of help.

8.  It lowers levels of cortisol in the body.

Cortisol is not fun stuff. It can lead to weight gain and aging. In addition, it causes inflammation which not only leads to pain, but seriously increases our risk for a wide variety of seriously bad illnesses. But there is good news amongst all of this gloom and doom. Yoga is proven to lower levels of cortisol in our bodies. Yes!!

9.  It can slow aging.

Scientific research has found that adopting a regular practice of yoga and meditation can not only slow, but even reverse certain effects of aging. Like anything else, this is no magic solution to turn back the hands of time, sorry. However, it has shown a “demonstrated improvement in both cardinal and metabotropic biomarkers of cellular aging”. I’m a religious applier of various face creams, I eat healthy (most of the time), I work out quite regularly, and I try to drink lots of water to stay hydrated. That’s my main battle plan against aging. Personally, I’m far too nervous about fillers and Botox and all of those types of things. If yoga can help keep me looking youthful for at least a while longer, then I’m here for it.

10. Yoga boosts the gray matter in your brain.

The gray matter in our brains is extremely crucial. Basically, it processes all those little signals that allows our body to function as it is supposed to. It is the information processor within our brain. Research has indicated that yoga boosts grey matter in our brains by increasing its volume and density.

Get Ready to Stretch

Did I convince you to give yoga a shot yet? No hard feelings if I didn’t. If you take away anything from this, I hope you remember that like yoga stretches our bodies, we should always be working towards stretching ourselves – physically, mentally, emotionally. The process of growth and expanding the depth of our understanding and skills is a lifelong process and one that we never fully complete. But that is good news because that means we need never get bored. I know if I start feeling bored, that’s always been my sign that I am getting too complacent with something in my life and need to push myself even harder. So always remember, stretching ourselves is a good thing. But like absolutely everything in life, always keep it in balance and don’t stretch yourself too thin or you might break something. And 3… 2… 1… and breathe in, and breathe out.

Questions, comments, or just need to chat? Send me a direct message via LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram.

Cheers until next time,

Crystal