Yoga is a mixture of controlled breathing sequences and a series of body postures done as exercise. It can be considered a type of alternative medicine that addresses both mind and body. It brings together both the physical and the mental aspects of the body to realize peacefulness and help your body relax.

Research has shown that yoga helps you manage or control anxiety and reduces stress and tension as well as helps reduce depression and generally improve your health. It helps you draw your focus away from the stresses of life and makes you focus on your movements and your breathing. Yoga can give you a general sense of well being and overall relaxation.

Yoga is also great exercise for your body. It will improve your flexibility, muscle tone, and circulation. It has also shown to lower blood pressure and help physical ailments such as carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and even asthma and epilepsy.

The key to yoga is the movement along with the breathing. The postures, also called poses, are a series of movements that were created to increase your strength and flexibility. Many yoga poses have names taken from nature like the dolphin pose or the firefly pose. The poses range from simple and relaxing poses where you lie flat to more difficult poses that require you to bend and stretch your body. Don’t be intimated by the poses. Anyone can practice yoga. There are many poses for beginners. There are also specific classes for the elderly, pregnant woment, and even children.

The act of controlling your breathing is vital to practicing yoga correctly. When you can control your breathing you will be able to control your body and keep your mind quiet. Your instructor, whether it be in a class or from a video will show you the proper way to breathe. It’s important that you never hold your breath during any of the movements. You should always either be inhaling or exhaling. Our bodies eliminate almost half of our waste through breathing. Not breathing correctly will keep the toxins inside our bodies which can cause illness.

It takes time to relearn how to breathe and to master the poses but your efforts will be rewarded. Your mind and your body will be stronger, you will stand a little taller and you will have a calmness about you that you didn’t even know you could achieve.

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