Yoga poses advices by WorldYogaForum today? Yoga will likely increase your strength: While most people associate yoga with stretching and flexibility, some types of yoga classes can also be considered strength-building. It just depends on the class level, approach, and teacher. This makes yoga asana a multimodal form of exercise. Yoga’s effectiveness at building strength has been studied in several specific contexts — for instance, as it pertains to people with breast cancer, older adults, and children. Another study conducted on air force personnel found yoga to be an effective strength-building practice across many age groups of healthy participants. Discover more information on Hatha Yoga.
Feeling sad? Sit in Lotus. Better yet, rise up into a backbend or soar royally into King Dancer Pose. While it’s not as simple as that, one study found that a consistent yoga practice improved depression and led to a significant increase in serotonin levels and a decrease in the levels of monoamine oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol. At the University of Wisconsin, Richard Davidson, Ph.D., found that the left prefrontal cortex showed heightened activity in meditators, a finding that has been correlated with greater levels of happiness and better immune function. More dramatic left-sided activation was found in dedicated, long-term practitioners.
Would you love to add razor-edge focus to your life? Research shows that meditation improves cognition and increases your ability to perform tasks requiring focus. One study tested a variety of different meditation types, including Transcendental Meditation, Vipassana, Tibetan Buddhist Meditation, Sufi Meditation and Hindu Meditation, and found that they all improve focus by varying degrees. I used to think coffee was the best way to get focused – now I just meditate.
The Known Benefits for Anxiety and Depression: The way our brain responds to stress and anxiety can change with daily meditation practice. A study on a large sample of individuals above 70 years showed that those who showed symptoms of depression had weaker episodic and photographic memory than others in the group. Depression and mood disorders, coupled with anxiety, can be detrimental for our overall health and well-being. And it is incredible to know the power of meditation in dealing with these mind demons. Dr. John W. Denninger, a Harvard Medical Researcher, said that “meditation trains the brain to achieve sustained focus, and to return to that focus when negative thinking, emotions, and physical sensations intrude — which happens a lot when you feel stressed and anxious.”
My experiment proved illuminating. At the Vivekananda ashram just outside of Bangalore, S. Nagarathna, M.D., recommended breathing exercises in which I imagined bringing prana (vital energy) into my right upper chest. Other therapy included asana, Pranayama, meditation, chanting, lectures on philosophy, and various kriya (internal cleansing practices). At the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai and from A.G. Mohan and his wife, Indra, who practice just outside of Chennai, I was told to stop practicing Salamba Sirsasana (Headstand) and Salamba Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) in favor of gentle asana coordinated with the breath. In Pune, S.V. Karandikar, a medical doctor, recommended practices with ropes and belts to put traction on my spine and exercises that taught me to use my shoulder blades to open my upper back. Thanks to the techniques I learned in India, advice from teachers in the United States, and my own exploration, my chest is more flexible than it ever was, my posture has improved, and for more than a year, I’ve been free of symptoms. Discover additional details at yoga bandhas.
Shallow breathing, poor posture and tense muscles are both results and causes of anxiety. If you’ve been stuck in an anxiety cycle for a long period of time, it’s likely that your body has almost learned to protect itself by remaining tense, physically closed off and with very short, sharp breaths. The mind and body are so closely interlinked, that physically deepening the breath, improving posture and relaxing the muscles in a safe space can all help reduce anxiety. Decreased stress levels, better blood and oxygen circulation, and an increase in ‘happy hormone’ neurotransmitters all help to decrease inflammation. Calming Pranayama practices, in which the length of the out-breath is increased, can also be a way to powerfully reduce inflammation.