Yoga for Health and Well-Being
Yoga is a powerful avenue through which to grow a healthy body and mind. It is an ancient practice whose original purpose was to steady the mind for meditation and concentration. Yoga has since traveled the globe and supported millions on their path to health and happiness. If you’ve ever done yoga, you know intuitively that regular yoga leads to a reduction in perceived stress, a newfound ability to relax, increased strength and balance, pain reduction, mental clarity, and countless other benefits. Western science has begun validating this kind of thinking, with studies showing reductions in symptoms of chronic back pain, depression, osteoarthritis and other conditions through yoga, even more so than comparison treatments such as active stretching, general exercise and journaling. Regular yoga practitioners even have more gray matter volume in brain areas underlying attention and memory, and report better cognitive function relative to those who don’t practice yoga. This is good news!
Yoga is great because it offers both physical and mental health benefits. And, innumerable yoga styles are now available to us in the United States, we have a lot to choose from in terms of finding yoga practices to support our unique needs. Maybe you want more openness in your lower back to feel more comfortable at work. Perhaps you worry a lot and want to open to experiencing more joy. Maybe you’d like to be physically stronger and more balanced to more easily address the many tasks involved in running your life. Yoga includes a countless number of practices which you can use to support your unique body and mind.
Be well and namaste,
Carly