We have heard a lot about the benefit of yoga and meditation. These two forms of mental and physical exercises are practised for ages to keep the mind and body happy and healthy. These practices seem more relevant in modern times as they improve balance, flexibility, strength, endurance, relieve anxiety and stress, and strengthens the immune system. Although yoga and meditation are two different practices, they go hand in hand. Incorporating yoga and meditation in your everyday exercise routine promotes a Healthy lifestyle and keeps diseases at bay.
What Is Yoga
Yoga is the oldest form of exercise. More than 5000 years back, yoga originated in India as a physical, mental, and spiritual practice to attain tranquillity in spirit and mind. It includes breathing techniques, slow movements, and different posters to warm up muscles increase the blood flow, and build strength. In addition, yoga practices require lots of concentration and discipline.
Today, yoga is one of the most popular forms of exercise worldwide to promote physical and mental well-being. It is an everyday activity at various fitness and physiotherapy centres to improve body flexibility or recover from injury.
What Is Meditation
In recent years meditation has become quite popular among people seeking a more holistic and healthy lifestyle. It is training your mind to accept life the way it is, free from discomfort and worries. It is giving a few moments alone with your thoughts to achieve a level of contentment and happiness. Practising meditation helps you develop a greater sense of perspective. It provides you with a greater understanding without passing any judgment and without changing yourself. In other words, meditation is not about becoming any person, a better person or turning off your feelings or thoughts. However, it includes specific conscious-changing techniques to encourage focus and attain a heightened state of awareness to achieve mental clarity and become emotionally stable and calm.
Benefits Of Yoga And Meditation
As both yoga and meditation are two different practices, let us learn about their benefits in separate sections in the article.
Benefits Of Yoga
Yoga means union. It is an ancient practice that brings body and mind together by incorporating meditation, breathing exercise and certain postures that encourage relaxation and lowers stress.
1. Improve heart health
Regular practice of yoga lowers the pulse rate and blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the major cause of cardiac issues and leads to stroke and heart attack. Low blood pressure reduces the risk of cardiac diseases.
2. Improves breathing
Certain yoga practices are focused on breathing techniques and exercises such as pranayama. It improves the total lung capacity and lung function and improves breathing.
3. Relieves migraine
Research has found that yoga stimulates the vagus nerve and decreases the headache frequency and intensity.
4. Reduces inflammation
Although inflammation is a natural response of the body’s immune system, chronic inflammation may lead to certain diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases and cancer. Individuals who practice yoga regularly have a lower level of inflammatory markers.
5. Improve balance strength and flexibility
Specific yoga poses include certain postures, slow movements, and deep breathing exercises that warm up the muscles, increase blood flow, and build strength.
6. Relieves back pain
The basic stretching in yoga practice improves mobility and eases pain in lower back pain. Many a time, doctors recommend yoga as the first-line for chronic back pain.
7. Eases arthritis symptom
If you suffer from arthritis symptoms such as swollen joint and pain, gentle yoga may ease the discomfort.
8. Manages stress and Anxiety
Yoga is well known to promote relaxation and lower stress. It lowers the level of cortisol hormone are improve mental health.
9. Promotes sound sleep
Studies show that yoga increases the secretion of the hormone melatonin that regulates sleep. In addition, it reduces anxiety and stress and thus enhances sleep quality.
Benefits Of Meditation
Meditation brings inner peace and wipes off daily stress. It is a reasonable and straightforward practice that restores calmness. Let us learn about benefits of meditation in detail.
1. Reduces stress
Physical and mental stress increases the level of the stress hormone cortisol, which stimulates the release of inflammatory chemical ‘cytokines’. The harmful effects of stress include increased blood pressure, disrupt sleep, cloudy thinking and fatigue. Meditation improves stress-related conditions and inflammation.
2. Promotes emotional health
Meditation provides you with a positive outlook and helps to improve your self-image. It strengthens your belief in your ability to overcome challenges
3. Promote self awareness
Through meditation, you connect to your inner self and develop a stronger understanding of yourself. This helps you become your best self and gain awareness of your habits and thoughts to steer them towards a constructive pattern. Meditation cultivates creative problem-solving skills.
4. Reduces anxiety
Meditation, stress-relieving activity, and positive self-statements reduce anxiety symptoms in individuals suffering from a generalized anxiety disorder.
5. Improve concentration
Meditation techniques that are attention-focused lengthens the attention span. It increases strength and endurance and improves concentration.
6. Improve memory
With improved attention and after gaining clarity of thinking, Your memory improves. Meditation also reduces age-related memory loss.
7. Help fight addictions
You gain mental discipline through meditation practice that increases awareness and self-control. Through meditation, one learns to redirect their energy and manage impulses and emotions. In addition, meditation helps control food craving and reduces binge and emotional eating.
If you join yoga and meditation classes, then along with the mind and health benefits, both these practices connect you with a supportive community. Joining a class provides you with an environment for support and group healing and eases loneliness. Even in one to one sessions, you have someone to talk, and you participate in personalized yoga and Meditation plans that curbs loneliness.
We hope our article made you clear how yoga and meditation benefit your mind and body. Include both practices in your exercise routine. However, remember to practice yoga and meditation only under the guidance of a trained practitioner because wrong technique and posture may cause more harm than benefits.
