It can happen you get going and your Yoga practice it starts once weekly or maybe even two times a week or more and you feel great and then an injury or a life change, illness, death in family, moving, job change, financial reasons. You stop practicing yoga, and your not quite sure but you know deep down inside that your missing something, you just don't feel quite right.
Once you have made the first step on the mat you will notice it changes how you feel, how you breathe and how you move your body. It is this connection that is the pure pleasure of the yoga practice. Being in tune with yourself, knowing what is working and not working. Mind, Body, Spirit.
It has been researched that 60,000 to 90,000 thoughts a day are processed in the brain and many of them are repetative thoughts, what a waste of time and energy.
Mediation comes to mind, take some time and slow down once a day to collect yourself and just breathe, be in the moment, with your breath and let all the worries of your day disapate. Imagine thoughts as bubbles and rising from your mind's eye to the crown of your head and then disapate to the sky.
The great thing about Yoga is you can always start again and again and practice your whole entire life. It is never to late to try yoga if you have never been on a Yoga mat, it is never to late to start back to your mat. It is your intention of setting up a time to practice and whether you join a studio, or home practice, take the first step and unroll your mat and just be with yourself and reconnect to the benefits of yoga. A central premise in yoga is “everything is connected.” That’s clear when looking at the health and fitness benefits of yoga that have long been reported by practitioners and are now being confirmed by scientific research.
Top Ten Reasons to practice per Yoga Alliance
1. STRESS RELIEF: Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body by encouraging relaxation and lowering the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system, as well as easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, asthma and insomnia.
2. PAIN RELIEF: Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing Yoga asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and other chronic conditions.
3. BETTER BREATHING: Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to improve lung function and trigger the body’s relaxation response.
4. FLEXIBILITY: Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of movement and reducing aches and pains.
5. INCREASED STRENGTH: Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase strength literally from head to toe. Yoga also helps to relieve muscular tension.
6. WEIGHT MANAGEMENT: Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weight control efforts by reducing the cortisol levels, as well as by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well being and self-esteem.
7. IMPROVED CIRCULATION: Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses, more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.
8. CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING: Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise.
9. BETTER BODY ALIGNMENT: Yoga helps to improve body alignment, resulting in better posture and helping to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.
10. FOCUS ON THE PRESENT: Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help create mind body health. It opens the way to improved coordination, reaction time and memory.
Not much more you can say other than get on the mat,take a deep breath and make the first step back to your connection with your body, mind and spirit
Namaste
Cathy
