3 Great Ways Yoga Can Help You
Practicing yoga asanas has many beneficial aspects besides strengthening the body and quieting the mind. It is a form of self-discipline that affects many areas of our lives.
Ways yoga benefits your body
1. Better sleep
With your yoga practice, you will find that you fall asleep more quickly, stay asleep for longer periods of time during the night, and awaken more refreshed and with fewer pains and aches.
Yoga facilitates the release of pent-up energy that inhibits slipping into sleep and remaining asleep during the night. It relaxes the nervous system, and lulls it into allowing sleep to overtake you when you go to bed.
Practicing yoga also quiets your racing mind. The relaxation and meditative attitude you get from the practice of yoga silences the committee that meets in your head that seems to need to dissect your day, plan for tomorrow, and review yesterday.
Yoga poses you can do just before bed that specifically help with guaranteeing better sleep are: uttanasana, savasana, and halasana. Uttanasana is the forward bending pose in which you exhale and bend over from your hips.
Savasana is also called the ‘dead man’s pose’ or ‘corpse pose’ because it involves lying on your back with your arms out from your sides and legs slightly apart. When thoughts arise while you are in this pose, just wrap them in clouds and let them float away, knowing you can retrieve them any time you wish.
Halasana is also called the ‘plow pose,’ and it involves lying on the floor on your back, lifting your legs over your head, and placing your toes on the floor behind you. Your arms remain flat on the floor to support your balance while in this pose.
2. Better sex
Yoga increases your body’s flexibility, allowing you to be more creative in intimacy. Since all of the yoga poses contribute to your body’s increased strength, balance and flexibility, they all offer you the ability to enjoy physical intimacy more. Yoga also helps you be more in touch with your bodily sensations so you can better enjoy pleasurable intimate activities.
3. Better energy
When you initially begin yoga, you may feel like you are expending a great deal of energy just to maintain poses, but as you continue yoga sessions the poses get easier. Once you are used to the poses, you will find that you feel energetic and refreshed after a session of yoga.
Certain yoga poses help you shed the negative energy that often builds up in your body and increase your positive energy. They include: utthita trikonasana, salabhasana, and utkatasana.
Utthita trikonasana is known as the extended triangle pose. It is a standing pose done with legs apart, bending from the hip, with the right hand touching the floor beside your right foot and your left arm raised in the air.
In salabhasana, you are lying on your belly with both arms and legs raised off the floor. Its three stages stretch your spine, enhance flexibility, and build stamina.
Utkatasana is also called the ‘chair pose’ and is done with knees bent as if you were going to sit down.
With better sleep, better sex and more energy, you will be better able to deal with life as it comes your way!