Yoga For Beginners Guide

We all have some understanding of what yoga is and the benefits it can have on our life and health, but to get a better understanding of yoga we have to appreciate its culture and tradition. The earliest time when yoga first came to light was around 3000BC, when stone seals were found which depicted yoga positions. Masters of yoga however believe that it was actually much earlier for yogis have traced its origin back to Stone Age shamanism.

Yoga and shamanism are thought to have similar characteristics particularly when it comes to improving our physical being. The history of yoga can be divided into four periods, the Vedic period, the pre classical period, classical period and the post classical period.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Breathing, poses and meditation

The practice of yoga is built upon a system which includes the series of yoga poses or postures, breathing and meditation. The theory behind yoga is that the body and mind become as one, it is thought then when this happens the individual can achieve perfect health.

Following yoga first starts with the mind for the mental choices we make strongly affect our body and health, traditionally in India yoga includes diet, exercise and meditation while in the modern world yoga primarily focuses on posture through a series of poses, breathing exercises and meditation.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Yoga just like martial arts takes discipline and together they compliment each other, both disciplines teach us that an over inflated ego brings us nothing but trouble and causes problems in life and they teach us respect and humility of ourselves and others. A true practitioner of martial arts is just like a well established yogi, they both carry love for fellow man, respect and kindness and both disciplines teach us:

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Just as it is important for our body to be in shape for us to enjoy a healthy lifestyle the same is true about our mental health, mental health refers to our emotional well being and this helps us get through our daily life with little or few problems.

Stress and worry can cause our mental health to deteriorate and this can cause problems in our family life and at work, practicing yoga on a daily basis can help to keep our mental health good and our body fit and well. Yoga can help to relieve mental illness problems, these problems can be divided into six categories which are:

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Improved health is one of the main benefits that yoga can give us when practice on a daily basis, many problems can arise with the digestive system including irritable bowel syndrome and heartburn.

Irritable bowel syndrome

One of the most common digestive disorders is irritable bowel syndrome it is thought to affect about 30% of the world’s population and affects the large intestine causing symptoms such as bloating, constipation, diarrhoea and gas.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

As we grow older we are more susceptible to ailments that come with aging such as high blood pressure, rheumatism, arthritis and incontinence. Although aging can have some limitations on the kind of exercise the elderly can perform it is essential that they do get some form of exercise to stay fit and healthy.

Yoga is an excellent form of exercise that can be adapted to suit the needs of the elderly and a form that can help with many of the problems associated with aging. Some yoga poses are specially designed to help with normalizing blood pressure and bringing balance to the nervous system and can help in the prevention of heart problems.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Yoga is a form of exercise that can be done by people of all ages and can play a beneficial role in improving a wide variety of medical conditions. It involves a series of poses and breathing exercises which can help to reduce stress related conditions and particularly asthma and bronchitis.

Asthma

Asthma is a common problem of the respiratory system, when an asthma attack occurs the bronchial tubes get very narrow this then leads to difficulty in breathing. A typical asthma attack is the sudden onset of breathlessness accompanied by wheezing; wheezing is heard because of the narrowing of the tubes and the air trying to get through them.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

The stress of today’s living can take its toll on both the body and mind but by practicing yoga on a daily basis we can help to ease the stress and strain day to day living can have on our minds and body. Relaxation is a technique in itself but it is essential in any form of yoga, there are three basic parts to relaxation these are – mental, physical and spiritual relaxation.

All yoga sessions are started off with relaxation techniques by lying down on the back feet slightly spread apart and hands down by the sides but not touching the body, palms facing up. Starting with the toes and working up along the body tense the muscles then relax them, do this with all parts of the body finishing up at the head.

Yoga For Beginners Guide

Yoga is much more than just exercise for keeping the body fit it’s also about balancing the mind. Yoga is based on a series of exercises or poses as they are called and it takes a lot of perseverance and practice to master. Practicing yoga on a daily basis will improve your health; strengthen your resistance and Develop mental awareness.

Doing yoga requires that you study and learn different sets of poses. Each pose is done slowly and requires you to control both your body and mind. For the beginner it is easier to learn the various poses one at a time until you know it off by heart before moving onto a new pose.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!