The people that are targeting just the physical aspects, find a countless of benefits with the consistent practice of yoga. The benefits you can first notice in your body are:
1- Digestion.
When you start to notice the improvement of your digestion, your skin look better, hair, your mood changes for the best. Naturally and with time and self-study your body rejects or feel more attract for certain types of food. When you eat good, your practice is good, digestion is good...when you eat no healthy foods you will feel in your body. That is a great step! In this process of recognizing what is bad or good for your digestion you control what you eat with time your weight is balanced and healthy. Not too much or you feel to full to practice and have a slow digestion process and not too little because you need energy to maintain the practice and your life out off the mat.
2- Weight is balanced
In a yoga class you see all kinds of different shapes of bodies. They all move beutiful. Learning to observe other bodies types, we start to appreciate our own bodies. We are all different, and this make us special and unique. The concept of what is the right body type is something created to distract our minds, creating insecurity or ego. Nothing good come from that. Nobody need a six pack to look great or big boobs to look sexy. Start to feel good from inside and out.
3-Satisfaction
Oh yes, you slowly will become flexible. How is that? Its not like magic. One month of yoga is not going to make you super flexible. Its a slow humble process. Its take time and effort. Its painful, but its for the good. After time your body can go to places your mind never imagined before. You brake your own limitations. In this process you release toxins that are stored in your body for a long long time. Its a natural slow cleaning and detoxing process. Your joints get lubricated, muscles slowly being stretch renewing muscles fibres and getting stronger. The breath combines with movements is the gold key to release toxins, stress, tension and everything that do not serve our body out and away when we start to sweat. As we start to swear our blood gets hot, eliminating even more toxins out, cleaning the internal organs and at the same time keeping the joints warmer so you can go even deeper and get more flexible.
4-Flexibility
As you become more flexible, muscles slowly getting stronger, your body becomes clean and light you start to affect your mind in a different way that other physical activities did not provide this to you before.
Your mind becomes more calm, little easier to deal with. You find this interesting. You start to notice that this long term yoga students look very calm in their face and talk. You search about it...some point in your life.
5-Peace of mind- lower levels of stress
You discover that yoga is much more than a physical practice. It is a spiritual practice to find your path toward yourself, toward something much greater that us. You name it! Yoga is not a religion, but can be an excellent tool addition to your religion. Yoga is the union of the Divine.
6- Spiritual Practice
The point of the iceberg is the asana practice. What we can see. The rest submersed in the water is what we can not see. Its a internal practice. Some point we learn that yoga have 8 limbs or steps that we should dedicate ourselves with mind and heart.
Those are:
- Yama - the five restraints or the "don'ts"
- Ahimsa - Non-violence
- Satya - Truthfulness
- Brahmacharya - Control of the senses and celibacy
- Asteya - Non-stealing
- Aparigraha - Non-covetousness and non-acceptance of gifts
- Niyama - the five observances or the "do's"
- Saucha - Purity, cleanliness
- Santosha - Contentment
- Tapas - Austerity
- Swadhyaya - Self-study, study of scriptures
- Ishwara Pranidhana - Surrender to God's will
- Asana - Steady posture
- Pranayama - Control of prana or life force
- Pratyahara - Withdrawal of the senses
- Dharana - Concentration
- Dhyana - Meditation
- Samadhi - Super-conscious state
The practice of yoga is a purification of the mind. There is a purification of the body, but the purification of the mind is very difficult process. The 8 limbs of yoga ( 8 limbs of Patanjali ) its a beautiful gift left for us for a better, mindful and consciousness life.
7- Union
Is a everyday practice. Gratitude, compassion and love towards ourselves and others. No labels, no differences. Everything created by Divine energy pulsing life in the same soul.
