What a regular yoga practice can do for you!
A regular yoga practice is a great way to promote overall health & can help to reset & regulate your metabolism to balance sluggishness. Regular practice can bring a little fire into your belly on physical, mental & emotional levels.
Specific movements (asana) & breath practices (pranayama) within a yoga practice can increase your metabolic rate – meaning you burn energy (calories) more efficiently, tone the body from the inside out & reduce stress (a major source of incidental & emotional over-eating).
When your metabolism is more efficient you’ll gain more energy from food, activity & even thoughts as the endocrine system (particularly thyroid and adrenal glands) creates energy in the body with greater ease.
Yoga has both strengthening & stimulating effects on the endocrine organs
Dynamic movement (continuous, flowing movement) including compression & release (twisting & folding asana) directs energy through the organs, fascia and blood flow, when practiced with directed breath (prana) this energy facilitates physical & mental awareness and metabolism. Each can stimulate blood flow to endocrine & abdominal organs; improving circulation, digestion, cleansing & elimination. The balanced movements within a yoga practice also activate specific muscle groups on all sides of the body equally (right/left, front/back, upper/lower). Mindful movement & integrated breath can generate heat, strength & stability – further boosting metabolism.
Yoga is not a quick fix though – this is why we call it ‘practice’. Every aspect of yoga becomes more refined, focused & beneficial when practiced regularly. Although many students practice in a class once a week, those who practice more regularly enjoy huge benefits in their wellbeing & start to notice how yoga practices quickly become integrated into daily life.
Motivation
As an observer or beginning student, slow flow yoga can look easy – slow movement is gentle on your body & steadily increases movement into the lungs, joints & muscles. But slow, mindful practice will challenge you every time; whether this is physical, mental or emotional (such as battling frustration, a busy mind, or competitive nature). You will soon notice steady progress in your breath & physical practice that will motivate you to keep going. A regular practice can also make you more disciplined & aware – in everything else you do.
Yoga encourages us to meet things exactly as they are & find our way.
Developing your own therapeutic yoga practice will challenge you to move in a deliberate way, with a deliberate intention or point of focus to create awareness. This is quite contrary to how many of us function the rest of the time! We can struggle to maintain focus & thoughts jump around from point to point. This increases the potential for overwhelm…& inertia as things get too hard & we lose motivation.
When we’re challenged to move, breathe & think in different ways… in the present moment, we open up to new ways of experiencing ourselves & others.
We open up to new ideas, creativity, focus & intention.
Students often say that they can’t think about anything else while they’re practicing – some people call this flow – when we are so absorbed in what we’re doing we lose all sense of time.
We call it ‘being’ – calm, focused & receptive.
Seeing things from a different perspective.
Discovering new purpose.
Mindfulness
Most forms of physical activity can create the physical & motivational benefits outlined above, but yoga includes something other practices don’t have: mindful meditation.
Let go of the idea that meditation is clearing the mind completely of thoughts, sitting completely still, crossed legged. This is a common misconception & is beyond most of us!
Meditative movement, breath, or sitting is about cultivating the ability to have a single point of focus – so each breath, movement or relaxation practice in a yoga class is meditation; paying attention to the present moment. When you’re trying to find balance in the physical practice & your mind wanders – you’ll wobble! This teaches you to focus on the present. Guided meditation & relaxation techniques towards the end of a practice strengthen this further, embedding this ability in your conscious & subconscious mind.
A regular mindful yoga practice can help you identify the presence of emotions, & acknowledging them and learning to move them into the past when they don’t serve you well – even when you’ve no idea where they came from. It can help us become aware of emotional reactions to circumstances, people, objects & the effects these have on our wellbeing. Everything we do affects our environment & self – mindfulness helps to cultivate this deeper awareness; creating clarity and purpose.
If you’d like guidance to develop or refine a personal practice, book a yoga therapy session with Jane
