The kids are back in school. The weather is becoming crisp. It’s time to start a new routine. Will this routine include yoga? September is National Yoga Month. What better time to begin or re-establish a yoga routine.
What is National Yoga Month? – In 2008 the United States health department decided to make September National Yoga Month. The purpose was to educate people on the health benefits of yoga. To support this, yoga studios set up events to educate and welcome newcomers into yoga. This was such a success that National Yoga Month is now observed globally!
So what are the health benefits of yoga? This is a very broad question that requires an in depth answer. However, let’s begin with a simple broad answer. To start, yoga helps to improve your fitness level. Moving through the various poses helps strengthen and tone your body, it lubricates your joints and increases your flexibility. This leads into the second benefit, improving your heart health. By improving your fitness level you decrease the stress that is put on your heart. Furthermore, the breathwork used in conjunction with the postures strengthens your heart wall and improves your circulatory system. Continuing, a stronger respiratory system is a third benefit of yoga. Yoga poses encourage the body to stand with an open posture, which opens the lungs and allows them to function more easily. Along with this, lung capacity is increased, taking undue stress off of the lungs. This leads into the fourth benefit, improved mental health. Learning different breath techniques allows the body to calm. This along with practicing poses which help bring focus allow anxiety to become more manageable and the mind to quiet. With stress and anxiety kept at bay, a fifth health benefit can be experienced – healthy organs. Cortisol levels, which spike due to stress and anxiety, can be kept at a healthy level. Healthy cortisol levels means better weight control, which means healthy organs because they do not have undue stress created from belly fat. This also means that there is a decreased risk of heart problems and diabetes. This is just scratching the surface of all the health benefits. In next Monday’s blog I will look at more specific health benefits from yoga.
So how is Grimsby Yoga celebrating National Yoga Month? – Fall Back to Yoga Challenge! This is a perfect opportunity to either begin or revitalise your yoga practice. The challenge begins today, and you have up until Wednesday to sign up. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to become a part of the excitement!
Namaste
Amy