Yoga Has Far-Reaching Benefits on Your Physical and Mental Well-Being
Yoga for Mind, Body, and Spirit
This article gives a general overview of yoga as a fitness program, discipline, and even a way of life. I’ll briefly describe what to expect in beginning yoga and your work on the mat. I’ll also highlight the more specific types of yoga which I will cover in other articles within this series.
I strongly encourage new-comers of all fitness levels to try out yoga and overcome any trepidation because it is really about self-acceptance and unity. The flexibility, strength, and stamina one receives in the repeated practice of yoga poses benefits the athlete tremendously in whatever sport they engage in. I happen to believe that it neutralizes and can seemingly even reverse the aging process to some degree.
The years and the earth’s gravitational pull take quite a toll on a person’s bones and muscles. Our habits of sitting at a desk and having incorrect posture are all negative forces which yoga poses work to counteract. I have several problem areas such as a scoped knee, a wrist with mild carpal tunnel syndrome, a precarious lower back, and very tight hamstrings from a lot of running and hiking. I’ve had no shortage of cognitive maladies either.
Through the patient tutelage of a magnificent teacher where I practice at Northern Lights Yoga here in Helena, Montana; most of those aches and pains that I was previously resigned to just accept as a result of an active life, have greatly diminished and even disappeared. Yoga also helps to alleviate my restless leg syndrome.
Your body will decay but your mind never has too. The scientists who study the brain have known for some time that it is elastic, always capable of learning, improving, and perhaps most importantly - that it can pull out of old ruts and create new grooves known in Sanskrit as samskara. So the neuroscientists have finally caught up with information that Yogis gleaned centuries ago. And yoga is all about creating new grooves in the mind which promote a higher level of awareness, attention, and gratitude. A friend of mine who has been teaching it for years calls it “investing in the subtleties.”
The Best Yoga for a Beginner
The yoga practitioner is encouraged to manipulate both small and large muscle groups while sustaining a pose in intricate and counter-intuitive ways. Such close attention to subtle layers works to correct posture and has specific benefits to balance your body in the best way. This attempt at achieving physical balance naturally spills over to affect the mind and spirit as well. Yoga also emphasizes the awareness and control of your breathing which can promote relaxation and is known to be soothing to the central nervous system.
While on your journey with this fitness gem imported from our Yogi friends in India, you may just find the little corner of tranquility you’ve always been looking for. It’s an ever-evolving personal journey and sometimes it’s incremental with advances that are unknown to you. Other times you experience huge releases.
Personally, after returning from combat in a war where all the colossal failures in human interactions, as well as the ugly, darker capabilities that we humans have under the surface, were painfully obvious, yoga was the first thing to bring me back to the light, peace, and hope on the other side of the coin. Using meditation and yoga for healing old emotional wounds of any kind will pave the way for a happier and healthier way of life.
Check out the yoga classes offered in your home town. Put on some comfortable clothes and learn firsthand how you can attain flexibility, stamina, and inner peace. If you’re looking to be the best at something, yoga might not be for you. The ego has no place on the mat and we are all just travelers there, saluting the inner lights in each other. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, some days after class I kind of feel like I’ve been broken into several pieces (and I ‘m a product of rigorous infantry training). However, I can assure you that it’s a good kind of pain because you know that for centuries, this discipline has improved, sustained, and extended the health and mental wellness of countless people.
The specific disciplines of Iyengar, Kundalini, and Flow Yoga will be fleshed out in other articles in this series in order for you to glean a working knowledge of each to discover which practice may be most appealing to you. But I do think ‘any kind’ is the answer to the question: what is the best kind of yoga for the beginner? Many yoga centers and yoga teachers (who in my experience have all been a very kind, generous lot) will allow you to try out one of their classes before you make a lengthy commitment.
Resources:
https://www.bksiyengar.com/modules/Iyoga/iyoga.htm
Northern Lights Yoga, 9 West Placer Helena, MT 59601 https://www.northernlightsyoga.com/
Stephen Cope, The Wisdom of Yoga. (New York: Bantam Books, 2006.)