Yoga has been portrayed in so many different ways in recent years. Hippie exercise, serious exercise, active recovery, beautiful, and the list goes on. Over the last couple of years I have fallen in love with yoga for so many different reasons, but I have mainly notice how yoga works to help balance my life. Now, I am not saying that you will do yoga and all of your problems will be solved. I am saying that yoga will help you find your center, relax your mind, and allow you to reach new heights through heightened self-awareness.
Balances Your Physique
When you lift heavy, are a runner, or are often involved in intense exercise, your muscles are going to develop small imbalances. You can feel the fact that you have one side that is stronger than the other. The more you squat or deadlift or bench the more you notice the loss of a range of motion. As your muscles are shortened and get larger, we lose range of motion in the muscle. Have you ever noticed that your friend that never works out could touch her toes more easily than you? This is where yoga works to balance your physique. If you throw a yoga practice into your routine a couple of times per week, you will notice an increased range of motion in your lifts and sprints as well as more symmetry in your physique.
Stretches Out The Stress
Work, work, work and more work. Get up, go to work, come home, make dinner, pay bills, get the kids to practice, call your mother and the list goes on every single day. Stress levels can reach maximum heights and we have no outlet. Enter yoga. When I just need a few minutes to breath and stretch out the tension, I turn to yoga. Yoga can help lower cortisol, or stress hormones, by turning your awareness inward and allowing you to let go. I focus on the hips, neck, and shoulders because that is where I carry all of my tension. My favorite yoga practices are on the youtube channel Yoga With Adrienne.
Teaches Relaxation
How many times have you wished you could just relax. To just be able to sit down and feel your body chill out. Yoga is the gateway to learning how to relax. Yoga focuses on turning your awareness inward and letting go of the day. Forgetting about your to do list and just listening to your body is the name of yoga’s game. If you can incorporate yoga into your routine a couple of times per week, you will find that slowing down and listening to yourself is a powerful thing. This is a section that I struggle with because I feel like I need to go, go, go all the time. Stopping and smelling the roses can open up the broader horizons that we tend to let fall away in our busy lives.
Spotlights Weaknesses
Remember those muscular imbalances I mentioned earlier? Yoga works not only to spot light those imbalances but also to highlight those muscle groups that you might be unknowingly neglecting. My first yoga practice was comical. I fell over constantly, my legs shook, and my lower back sagged. I thought that I was strong and steady before I tried yoga, and that first practice proved me wrong. Maybe your core is not as strong as you thought it was or perhaps you are constantly falling over when trying to balance on your right side. You might find that you have a hard time concentrating throughout the entire practice or that your mind wanders. Yoga really spotlights weaknesses in both your physique and in your mind.
Pulls Your Focus Inward
So many times our focus is directed towards tasks, other people, problems, and the outer world in general. Yoga works to pull your focus inward so that you can get a true inventory of yourself and how you are feeling. We don’t usually take time out of our week to really think about how we are feeling or to analyze those problems we keep pushing aside. Yoga gives us the opportunity to turn our focus inward and let the light shine through. After a practice you will feel lighter, looser, and overall more settled.
Overall, yoga works to balance your physique, your mind, and your life. I love doing yoga a couple of times per week because it allows me to stretch out and let go of everything for a few minutes.
What is your number one reason for doing yoga? Drop it in the comments so I can check it out!
