Yoga is an ancient practice that helps create a sense of union in body, mind, and spirit. It brings us balance. Yoga is a complete science of life that originated in India many thousands of years ago.

The ultimate goal of yoga is to attain freedom from worldly sufferings and serves a means of achieving enlightenment, whereby one transcends conscious thoughts and experiences spiritual bliss. It calls for the mastery over the body, mind, emotions and the ability to rise above worldly desires. Practicing yoga is known to result in the gradual awareness of the true meaning of reality.

In the ancient world, yoga evolved as a way of cultivating spiritual awareness, compassion and insight. It has been taken to represent the union of the soul and the body.

One of the many branches of yoga that penetrated the modern world is Hatha Yoga. This consists of concentration techniques, breathing exercises, specific dietary restrictions and the "asanas", or the stationary or moving poses used to create a balance in the different systems of the body. Among the systems benefited by the asanas are the digestive, the endocrine and the nervous systems.

This series of poses or postures exert their beneficial effects by slowing down mental activities and gently stretching the bodies and massaging the internal organs. The vibrant serenity resulting from the practice is relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time. It elevates us from the daily stressors that plague our lives. Regular daily practice of yoga increases our resistance to stress and strengthens our relaxation responses.

Benefits of Yoga

At physical level

* Improves muscle tone, flexibility, strength and stamina.

* Lowers fat, Improves circulation, Stimulates the immune system

* Meditation keeps one young. Younger biological age i.e. one is younger than one’s chronological age.

*Deep rest-as measured by decreased metabolic rate, lower heart rate, and reduced work load of the heart.

*Lowers levels of chemicals associated with stress eg. cortisol and lactate.

*It reduces the chances of tissue damage though, the free radicals are controlled.

*Decreased high blood pressure.

*Drop in cholesterol levels.

*Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing. This has been very helpful to asthma patients.

And that's just the surface stuff. In fact, most of the benefits mentioned above are secondary to yoga's original purpose.

At mental level

* Helps you relax and handle stressful situations more easily.

* Encourages positive thoughts and self-acceptance.

* Reduces stress and tension, anxiety, depression, irritability and moodiness.

* Boosts self esteem,

* Improves concentration and creativity

* Heals old traumas

* Increases brain wave coherence. Harmony of brain wave activity in different parts of the brain is associated with greater creativity, improved moral reasoning, and higher IQ. Improves comprehensive ability and memory.

* Enhances emotional stability.

* Brings happiness and leads to vitality and rejuvenation.

At spiritual level

* Builds comprehensive awareness.

* Promotes an interdependence between mind, body, and spirit.

* Helps you live the concept of “oneness.”

*Creates sense of well being and calm.

*Makes one to discover one’s true nature i.e. realizing one's self, in finding what one seeks - consciously or unconsciously.

* Controls the mind.

* Sets one free from one’s illusions and preconceptions that prevents from fulfilling oneself.

* Attains the union between a person's own consciousness and the cosmic consciousness.

The Ancient Yoga seers perceived the physical body as a vehicle, with the mind as driver, the soul as one’s trueself, with action, emotion and intelligence as the three forces which pull the body-vehicle. The ancient yoga seers assemble an exclusive technique to bring the body, mind and soul together into one harmonious experience by balancing action, emotion and intelligence.

By Megha Brahmankar & Michael Russell

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