Benefit of Yoga Part II

The practice of Yoga brings with it many physical and emotional benefits that the majority of people are unaware of.

This article is quite long, so we have broken it up into two parts. The first part is an introduction to Yoga and a overview of the major physical and psychological benefits of Yoga, while the second part shows how practicing yoga daily can have a profound effect on your ability to create a healthy lifestyle for yourself.

Supporting a Healthy Lifestyle

There is some very interesting psychology behind this that students of western thinkers (e.g. Freud, Jung, Fromm, etc.) will find familiar and, indeed, quite rational. When an individual decides to be happy, something within that person activates; a kind of will or awareness emerges. This awareness begins to observe the jungle of negative thoughts that are swimming constantly through the mind.

Rather than attacking each of these thoughts – because that would be an unending struggle! – yoga simply advises the individual to watch that struggle; and through that watching, the stress will diminish (because it becomes exposed and thus unfed by the unconscious, unobserving mind!).

At the same time, as an individual begins to reduce their level of internal negativity, subsequent external negative behaviors begin to fall of their own accord; habits such as excessive drinking, emotional overeating, and engaging in behaviors that, ultimately, lead to unhappiness and suffering.

With this being said, it would be an overstatement to imply that practicing yoga is the easy way to, say, quit smoking, or to start exercising regularly. If that were the case, yoga would be ideal! Yoga simply says that, based on rational and scientific cause and effect relationships that have been observed for centuries, that when a person begins to feel good inside, they naturally tend to behave in ways that enhance and promote this feeling of inner wellness.

As such, while smoking (for example) is an addiction and the body will react to the lessening of addictive ingredients such as tar and tobacco (just to name two of many!), yoga will help the process. It will help provide the individual with the strength and logic that they need in order to discover that smoking actually doesn’t make them feel good.

In fact, once they start observing how they feel, they’ll notice without doubt that instead of feeling good, smoking actually makes one feel quite bad inside; it’s harder to breathe, for one.

Scientists have proven that there is a true physical addiction that is in place, alongside an emotional addiction that can be just as strong; perhaps even stronger. The point here is simply to help you understand that yoga can help a person make conscious living choices that promote healthy and happy living. This can include:

- quitting smoking

- reducing excess drinking

- eating healthier

- getting more sleep

- reducing stress at work (and everywhere else for that matter)

- promoting more harmonious relationships all around

Please remember: yoga doesn’t promise anyone that these things will simply happen overnight. At most, yoga is the light that shows you how messy things in the basement really are; and once that light is on, it becomes much more straightforward – not to mention efficient and time effective – to clean things up!

Emotional Benefits

Yoga has also been hailed for its special ability to help people eliminate feelings of hostility and inner resentment. As a result of eliminating these toxic emotions, the doorway to self acceptance and self actualization opens.


Pain Management Benefits

Pain management is another benefit of yoga. Since pain and chronic pain are conditions that affect all of us at some point, understanding the positive link between yoga and pain management could be invaluable.

It can also be financially valuable, since the pain medication industry is a multi-billion dollar marketplace and many people, especially as they age, find that their insurance or government coverage won’t cover some pharmaceutical and over-the-counter pain relief medications. The website www.lifepositive.com provides some illuminating information on yoga and pain management:

Yoga is believed to reduce pain by helping the brain's pain center regulate the gate-controlling mechanism located in the spinal cord and the secretion of natural painkillers in the body.

Breathing exercises used in yoga can also reduce pain. Because muscles tend to relax when you exhale, lengthening the time of exhalation can help produce relaxation and reduce tension.

Awareness of breathing helps to achieve calmer, slower respiration and aid in relaxation and pain management. Yoga's inclusion of relaxation techniques and meditation can also help reduce pain. Part of the effectiveness of yoga in reducing pain is due to its focus on self-awareness.

This self-awareness can have a protective effect and allow for early preventive action.


Real People, Real Benefits

The website www.beingyoga.com provides some great testimonials from real people – not mystical Yogis or people hailing from a spiritual school – who have experienced positive results from their yoga experiences. Here’s but one of them:

"Bikram Yoga has helped manage my diabetes unbelievably. I have curtailed my insulin injections by 50%. I have lost 30 pounds, completely lost the desires to smoke, drink alcohol and eat junk food. I even wrote a book on how it saved my life called, No More Diabetes, How Yoga Saved my Life." - John Spanek

In part I of the Benefit of Yoga we discussed a brief history and introduction to Yoga and how it can physically and psychologically benefit those that practice it daily.