With the United Nations declaring 21 June as the International Yoga Day, the awareness on the benefits of Yoga has rapidly increased worldwide. The world now knows just an hour of Yoga every day can make anyone a lot more healthier.

The word ‘yoga’ means “to join or yoke together”. It brings the body and mind together for a harmonious experience. Yoga is a practice with historical origins in ancient Indian philosophy. Health experts believe modern lifestyle has lost the harmony in the mind-body relationship, causing several stress-related illnesses such as hypertension, coronary heart diseases and cancer.

An attempt to prevent and treat these diseases triggered a search for better lifestyles and better strategies, which converged on the rediscovery of ancient disciplines such as Yoga, combining lifestyles with potent infallible prescriptions for lasting mental peace, as confirmed by clinical studies. Yoga is considered the science of modern living, and hence should be incorporated into daily lives.

Regular Yoga practice can cleanse the tissues through muscle stretching and massaging of the internal organs and brings the waste back into circulation so that the lungs, intestines, kidneys, and skin are able to remove toxins in a natural way.

Yoga helps promote a balanced development of three areas — physical, mental and spiritual.

Let’s take a look at how Yoga affects a human mind and body.

PHYSICAL

Flexibility: Yoga helps the body become more flexible, bringing greater range of motion to muscles and joints, flexibility in hamstrings, back, shoulders, and hips.

Strength: Many Yoga poses support the weight of own body in new ways and techniques.

Heart diseases: With less stress and blood pressure, chances of cardiovascular diseases become less.

Diabetes: Yoga stimulates insulin production and reduces glucose to prevent diabetes.

Pain prevention: Increased flexibility and strength can help prevent the various instances of back pain, chronic pain, neck pain can be lessened with Yoga practice.

Blood circulation: Yoga postures can help improve circulation and eliminate toxic waste substances from the body.

PSYCHOLOGICAL

Mental Calmness: While Yoga practice is intensely physical, concentrating so intently on what the body is doing has the effect of bringing calmness to the mind.

Stress reduction:  Physical activity is good for relieving stress, and this is particularly true of Yoga. Yoga provides a much-needed break from stressors, as well as helping put things into perspective.

Concentration: Yoga increases concentration and motivation in quick time

Memory: Yoga stimulates better blood circulation especially to the brain, which reduces stress and improves concentration leading to better memory.

SPIRITUAL

Inner connection: Experts claim Yoga can help create a bond between the body and mind apart from all other benefits.

Inner peace: Yoga is the only method known to us for better and quicker inner peace, say Yoga practitioners.

Body awareness: Doing Yoga gives to people an increased awareness of their own body. It increases the level of comfort, and can lead to improved posture and greater self-confidence.