Tara Yoga

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 used in western medicine can help with enhancing and treating chronic illnesses as well as helping us to deal better with stress and aiding in relaxation. In today’s world we are constantly feeling stressed and anxious, this leaves us tired, depressed and we easily fall victim to illnesses. The first priority of yoga helps us to achieve a more relaxed state of mind this is achieved by yoga postures, breathing exercises and meditation.

The yoga postures

Yoga postures are a series of gentle stretching movements which are designed to help balance the body and mind; they work by increasing the blood supply to areas and stimulating those areas. Most of the poses work on more than one area of the body at the same time and they produce beneficial effects on the organs in three ways.

• The position of the pose increases the circulation of blood to the specific organ or gland.
• The position of the pose gives a slight squeezing effect to the organ or gland therefore massaging it.
• Deep breathing and focusing visually on the organ sends prana to the organ or gland.

Yoga breathing techniques or pranayama

These are specially developed yogic breathing techniques which are aimed at producing a huge store of energy in the solar plexus area. This is said to give the body more vitality and help with resistance to diseases, yogic breathing also helps improve concentration and memory.

Meditation and positive thinking

The benefits of the yoga poses can be increased by concentrating on the healing action to the parts of the body that need it. This is achieved by affirmations, visualization and concentration meditations.

An affirmation is a positive statement about your self repeated over and over again, this could be for example I have reached my desired weight for those on a diet, my lungs are clear and healthy for those who want to quit smoking, I am alert and full of energy as an overall affirmation.

Visualization techniques can also be used; this is where we focus on a picture in our minds, for example picturing your self a few pounds lighter, picturing your lungs clear and breathing easier or picturing your whole body glowing with energy.

The most effective yoga therapy is when you combine all of these together, the poses, the breathing and the meditation. The yoga poses strengthen the body; the breathing techniques promote chemical and emotional balance within the body and the meditation encourages positive thinking about our selves.