Yoga has been used to improve overall health and wellness for thousands of years. In the past two decades, people in the United States and other western industrialized nations have begun to embrace the possibilities of alternative and traditional or complementary medicines.
The regular practice of yoga offers a full range of benefits to improve health and wellness. Yoga helps to regulate the various systems of the body, including respiratory and circulatory. In addition, yoga is beneficial for the muscles, organs and joints of the body. Practicing yoga helps to keep all these areas of the body functioning well and working together to promote overall health.
In addition to the growing acceptance of alternative medicine, people are beginning to question the logic of taking so many prescription drugs. Americans take more prescription medications than people in other countries and more people are seeking healthy, natural alternatives to achieving and maintaining health and wellness.
Yoga offers abundant benefits for achieving health and wellness naturally. In addition to beginning to understand the benefits of alternative therapy, professionals in the medical community are beginning to understand and accept the mind-body connection. The health of the body is greatly affected by the health of the mind and a strong mind-body-spirit connection.
Studies have demonstrated the connection of the mind and body. Studies have been conducted that show the physical effects of stress on the body. Similarly, studies have sown the benefit of yoga and other mind-body techniques to improve overall health, as well as a host of specific health conditions. Cultivating the mind body connection and learning to reduce stress is an effective way to improve overall health and there is no doctor or medication involved.
Yoga provides this connection of the mind, body and spirit that works to relax the body and mind and promote physical and emotional health. In addition to the physical asanas in yoga, the use of pranayama breathing and meditation elements of the practice are most effective for living in balance.