The Benefits of Yoga

The benefits of Yoga have been well documented. This article’s purpose is for you to find healing of your body-mind-soul through learning the technique of what I call 'creating space' through the practice of yoga poses and yoga stretches.

'The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.' ~B.K.S. Iyengar, Yoga: The Path To Holistic Health

Your body is a metaphor for the issues in your life – issues that are manifested in your body as a result of chronically tense muscles and held stress.

Hurting knees or hip flexors (iliopsoas muscles) may represent inflexibility in your life, since knees and hips flex and bend. By learning the benefits of Yoga you can learn to release this tension in your hips and legs and find health and healing of your body-mind-soul.

Powerful muscles of the buttocks and muscles deep in the hip like the piriformis may represent control or power in your life or the loss of control or power.

Feet and ankles may represent stepping out or stepping forward or getting you toes wet or nowhere to step.

Pushing forward too hard is a recurrent theme in leg and hip issues. It is a metaphor for pushing forward too hard in your life. It may also represent a fear of moving forward.

The back may represent support and burdens, because it is the back that supports us. Shoulders and arms carry weight and burdens. They also 'lift,' 'hold,' 'carry,' 'embrace' and many more metaphors. Hands 'handle' things and 'touch' things. Please see Healing Through the Power of Touch to better understand the body metaphor of touch.

This is just a brief summary of the many possible metaphors of the body. If you haven't read the Body Window and Developing Intuition pages, I explain this phenomenon in greater detail. My foam rolling pages have in depth details of each muscle area and its concomitant body metaphors.

It's All in the Release

It is through the releasing of chronic muscular tension that the benefits of Yoga become apparent. Meditate on your own truth for your sore areas and why you hold stress and tension in specific muscles.

You can learn a lot about yourself and find your true issues if you learn to listen when your Body Window speaks to you through your sore muscles. By doing Yoga you learn to release the stress, release the control, release the fighting and find peace in your soul. You learn more about why you hold stress in certain areas of your body rather than others. Experiencing the full benefits of yoga is much more than merely practicing a physical exercise.

If you haven’t figured out yet from this website that I love yoga, you will when you get finished reading this piece. Yoga stretches my body and yoga stretches my mind. It is a complete body-mind-soul healing process through the power of stretching. The benefits of yoga through stretching and held poses will bring peace and healing to your body-mind-soul as well. If you need a place to start your own Yoga practice, go to Gaiam Yoga Studio.

A wonderful personal testament to the benefits of yoga can be found at Cyn Narcicisi's Blog. I love her perspective on yoga as a source of release and a source for new creative energy. I share her view 100 percent.

It Matters Not, the Origins of Yoga

Do not be afraid to give yoga a try even if you feel it has some mystical eastern origin. Yoga may be a religion unto itself for a lot of folks, but it doesn’t have to be for you. You can keep it true for you and keep it true to your faith. You do not have to be an Eastern follower to practice the yoga stretches and get the health benefits of yoga. If you are Christian or Muslim or of any other religious tradition, meditate on what is important to you and your faith as you do the yoga stretches and yoga poses! As always, make yoga your practice and make it your meditation! If the body is alive with spirituality, and I know it is, then make it the spirituality of your choice!

No matter what type of faith you practice, you can enjoy the amazing benefits of yoga for body-mind-soul healing!

For me personally, I return to the Yoga poses, almost on a daily basis. I warm up to Surya Namaskar or the Sun Salutation. This is a classic yoga sequence. The meditative practice of yoga and its ability to speak to me through my Body Window is the reason. For me, yoga IS meditation. For my story on the meaning of yoga for me, read Intuitive Movement, and my personal journey to healing of my body-mind-soul through using the intuition of my body.

You too, can learn developing intuition by using your body. Just follow my instructions in developing intuition on how to do your body scan and meditate on the meaning of each sore area as you work to stretch, body roll or do foam rolling of that particular area. This is how to reap the full benefits of yoga.

Adjust and Personalize Yoga for YOU!

If yoga seems too daunting for you, just know that you don’t have to look like a pro, be stick-thin or amazingly flexible to enjoy the benefits of yoga!

You can do modified versions of all the yoga poses, like the Dancer's Pose below, and still reap huge changes in yourself!

Dancer's Pose

Modified Dancer's Pose

You can replace the Warrior II Pose with this modification:

Warrior II Pose

Modified Warrior II Pose

In fact there are even chair yoga poses that you can do. You may want to look into a supportive Yoga practice such as Iyengar Yoga. Practitioners of Iyengar Yoga focus on symmetry and alignment, using props, yoga straps, blankets, yoga blocks and chairs to achieve the postures. It is a very gentle yoga approach that stresses understanding your body and how it works.

You just start slowly and at your own pace, make it meditative and b-r-e-a-t-h-e. Go only as far as you can go. Each day as you practice ou will find that over time, you will be able to go just a little farther! The benefits of yoga can be enjoyed by all at all levels of practice.

Just look at me, a 50-something who dared to put herself out there on the web! I am anything but svelte, gorgeous or model-like. I would never make it on the cover of Yoga Journal.

It took many deep breaths and a brave stance to place myself out there for all to see. I do it so that YOU many benefit, regardless of your weight, your flexibility or your age!

I have my hang ups just as you do. You will never see me in a pair of shorts on this website. I never thought there would come a day when I would have to worry about cellulite on the front of my legs!

I place my warrior poses on-line with trepidation, because despite taking many camera angles, even in the best shots I still feel like I look like a chubby little soldier!

Come to Peace with Your Body as a Manifestation of Your Soul and Age Gracefully!

What I have accomplished, is I have come to peace with the beauty of my body and love it as a manifestation of my soul. Yoga has helped me learn to love my body. Please do the Body Blessing Prayer, if you need to get yourself in the proper frame of reference to love your body and begin to change your perception of it. It is never too late to start healing in your life!

Aging gracefully is staying aware of your hang-ups about your body, and the cultural brain-washings and still learning to love your body as is.

If you stay aware and stay present in your love for yourself, you CAN overcome society’s love of youth, beauty and the perfect body. Let’s face it – we will NEVER be completely satisfied with the way we look, and the way we age. It just won’t happen! You might as well be happy with yourself and your body. It will bring you peace and healing – I promise! Your body-mind-soul will thrive in your self-love.

As you learn this self-love, your entire body can begin a more encompassing healing process. It will grow like fire, for healing in your life. Finding the benefits of yoga can help you fan this fire!

Keep Yoga Yours for Life-Long Improvements

Yoga seems to have more styles than flavors of ice cream. As yoga becomes more and more popular, many different ideas have been developed on how best to practice it. As always, I throw away any dogma and make it my own practice. I don’t care about the origins of yoga. I don't care who created a specific style of yoga or the Sanskrit names of the yoga poses. I don't care what the name of the hottest new yoga studio is. I make yoga an intuitive practice, an Intuitive Movement for me and me alone.

I prefer to call yoga ‘strengthening stretches.’ Nothing strengthens the body like yoga. All you men out there, if you think yoga is for wimps, think again. Try the Plank Pose and the Four-limbed Staff Pose. Hold each pose for a minute!

Plank Pose

Four-limbed Staff Pose

Side Plank Pose

How about the Side Plank Pose? Hold this one for a minute!

For even harder poses try the Crane Pose (not pictured - but I can do it!) and the Peacock Pose (not pictured and I can't do it) for upper body strength, in addition to the many handstand poses. Regardless of which poses you can do, you can still enjoy the benefits of yoga in your body.

Nothing keeps you young like Yoga. Inertia in your body brings about weakness, immobility and disease. Yoga can prevent this or slow down the process so you can enjoy life to its fullest for as long as possible. These are the benefits of yoga.

For lower body strengthening, try the Warrior III and the Half Moon Poses below:

Warrior III Pose

Half Moon Pose

For even harder poses try the Chair Pose and the Revolved Fierce Pose:

Chair Pose

Revolved Fierce Pose

I believe that Yoga poses strengthen the body for the activities of daily life better than just weight lifting. Unless you only want to achieve muscle mass, you gain so much more than strength with yoga. Weight lifting shortens the muscles, where yoga poses lengthen and elongate the muscles while at the same time strengthening them. This improves range-of-motion and flexibility for daily activities.

Not only will yoga poses increase your strength but it will increase your flexibility and joint mobility as well. Nothing will keep you from suffering from the degenerative effects of aging like yoga stretches. The benefits of yoga are gained when you care for your body, because when you care for your body, you care for your soul.

Benefits of Yoga, in Summary:

• Increases strength
• Increases joint mobility for better movements (range-of-motion) for the activities of life
• Increases flexibility to prevent injury when using the body for the activities of life
• Required balance to perform the exercises automatically builds core strength without doing endless crunches!
• Identifies which side is your weaker, tighter side to work on re-balancing your body and rebalancing your life.
• Increases circulation, thereby providing more oxygenation to the organs and tissues for health and healing
• Massages all organs and tissues to promote circulation for health, as above
• Promotes relaxation and calm by deepening your respirations and lowers blood pressure
• Perfect avenue for the Body Window to speak to you to identify where your held issues lie – your personal body-mind-soul-issues
• Provides avenue for body meditation or ‘praying with the body’
• Provides a way to learn meditative techniques through the focus on the breath
• Gives you an avenue to understand your body metaphors
• Promotes body-mind-soul healing through the relaxation and elongation of muscles and tissues
• Overall feeling of well-being is immediate after only one session AND after each and every session.
• Gives you a way for Self-Love – Caring for Your Body is Caring for Your Soul, a powerful mind-body-soul technique!

Are the above benefits of yoga enough for you? Are they enough for you to begin your own practice?

My true philosophy of using the body for spirituality through practices like yoga poses and yoga stretching is found in my piece, of Exercise Stretches – The Metaphor of Creating Space. In this article, I go into great depth the possibilities for developing intuition by using your body and the messages it presents to you, through the simple practice of held, stretching postures. Reading of Exercise Stretches – The Metaphor of Creating Space first will help you more fully understand how the of Body Window can speak to you while getting the benefits of yoga.

Keep Yoga Meditative

The simple practice of focusing on the breath makes yoga meditative. As you focus on the breath, you focus on the body. You feel the relaxation, feel the stilling of the mind and you turn your focus inward. Because the body needs to relax first, to put it in a meditative state is why yoga is so beneficial. The benefits of yoga are to relax you and it will help you go inward. Yoga is body meditation. Yoga helps you discover the spirituality of your body.

If you start with seated yoga poses, you will find it may be an easier place to begin. You don’t need to worry about balance and support. The earth supports you instead. The Universe is waiting to support you in your seated yoga stretches and postures.

Sitting yoga poses on the ground/floor are very beneficial because the postures we use from sitting on a chair train our muscles to contract and shorten. This causes us pain and tension, instead of extending, lengthening and stretching us. With the shortening (chronic contraction) of the muscles of the hip from sitting long periods of time comes back pain and hip pain, from muscles like the of iliopsoas, of piriformis, and others.

It is only from the benefits of yoga and of foam rolling that you can reverse the problems of chronic muscle tension in the hips and back due to the chronic muscle shortening from sitting.

Where Do You Start?

If you are brand new to yoga, I recommend taking classes or buying yoga videos. You can Join the Gaiam Yoga Club ~ I like Rodney Yee. He is an amazingly beautiful and toned man, through practicing Yoga.

I believe that where there is a will there is a way, so if you really want to learn it on your own, you can. It just doesn’t matter if you do it perfectly or not. I have been to many a yoga class where no individual instruction was given. Unless you can afford private lessons or yoga certification classes, most likely you will not get individual attention anyway.

If you need equipment I recommend Power System's Premium Yoga Sticky Mat. It's the one I use myself and for a medium thickness mat is is very nice. There is also the Gaiam Yoga Studio.

Keep on trying to do the yoga poses to the best of your ability. As you get better, stronger, and get more flexible, you will improve. With even the smallest movements you will soon experience the benefits of yoga. The elderly, doing wheelchair yoga show dramatic improvements.

Do not start out with any revolved yoga poses, as they are much harder. Stick to the easier ones. If you study the body positions on the videos and on-line, and teach your right-brain (see Improving Your Body Balance is Improving Your Life Balance to learn more about the right brain vs. left brain functions) and make the yoga posture an intuitive process, you will not hurt yourself. You must, however, be intuitive and be smart and listen to your body! DO NOT push through any pain of more than a slight discomfort. You do not want to overstretch and tear tendons or muscles! Progress slowly! If you have unrealistic goals and hurt yourself, you will give it up and think you can’t do it. You will regress to a world of inertia and pain!

If you have any chronic neuromuscular issues like a bad back, have had surgery on your neck or spine, have sciatica, pinched nerves or other issues, please get an evaluation by your doctor before you proceed.

Always remember that pain is your body’s message to you, that something is wrong. Never, ever push through any pain. Intuitive Movement does not push through pain. Most of us understand the concept of intuitive eating, i.e., eating only what you are hungry for and only when you are hungry. Intuitive movement is doing only that movement which brings you mild discomfort, not pain.

Through the meditative benefits of yoga you can learn to still your mind and stay present in the freedom of the movement. There is freedom in the movement and in the yoga stretches. You focus on your body. You breathe in and elongate, breathe out and go a little farther into the stretch. You release your tension. You breathe again and go a little farther. You focus on the movement. You feel inner peace and strength. These are the benefits of Yoga.

Key Summary Points for a Body-Mind-Soul Yoga Practice:

• Make it meditative
• Make it intuitive movement
• Take it slowly
• Do it in reverence for your body
• Do it to love yourself
• Do it to age gracefully
• Do it to remain functional and independent
• Do it to maximize your fullness for your activities of daily life
• DO IT FOR YOU

My favorite yoga meditation that I use for warming up I am presenting in the video below. It is an easy place to start to learn yoga poses. The Yoga Sun Salutation comes in many forms and many styles. This is my personal yoga sun salutation that I learned many years ago. Please feel free to modify the yoga poses as your own intuition dictates. Hold each yoga pose for as long as you want or move faster if you feel the desire. Repeat the sequence as often as you like. The more automatic the movements become, the more meditative and peaceful you can make it and the more you will receive the benefits of yoga.

May your path to self-discovery be enhanced by practicing yoga poses and yoga stretches and may you experience the full benefits of yoga! May your journey towards body-mind-soul healing begin!

Related Articles that You May Enjoy:

• Beginners Yoga ~ Great Tips for Those Learning the Yoga Basics
• More Yoga Tips for Beginners and Everyone!
• The Yoga Strap ~ The Best Yoga Prop!
• Yoga Blocks ~ A Great Way to Align Your Yoga Poses
• Wall Yoga ~ What Could You Do If You Were Truly Supported?
• Negril Yoga Center ~ Yoga Travel to Jamaica
• My Yoga Teacher Training Experience
• Yoga at Home ~ Developing a Personal Yoga Practice
• Can it be a Yoga Injury?

Top of Page ~ "The Benefits of Yoga"

© Copyright 2009-2013, by Elle Bieling, BodyWindow.com



Information on this website not intended for medical advice. See your physician for any health concerns.

SBI!