Jun 27, 2016

What is Yoga, history of yoga, its benefits, its importance, its advantages & disadvantages and its types.


What-is-Yoga-history-of-yoga-its-benefits-its-importance-its-advantages-&-disadvantages-and-its-types

> What is yoga?
Yoga is a most important and precious gift given by the nature from ancient time to get connected throughout the life with nature. It is the practice of uniting the mind and body in order to achieve the perfect harmony between both. It helps a person to get higher level of consciousness by getting control over the body in all aspects like physically, mentally, socially and intellectually. Yoga is promoted to get practiced daily in the schools and colleges for the betterment of the students as well as increasing their concentration level towards study. It is a systematic effort done by the people to attain the perfection by getting control over all different nature elements exist in the body.

It needs very safe and regular practice to get benefited all the asanas of yoga. Yoga is practiced to bring spiritual progress in the body and mind for self-development by controlling the inner energy. The inhaling and exhaling of the oxygen during yoga is the main thing. Practicing yoga in daily life regularly prevents from various diseases as well as cures fatal disease including cancer, diabetes, high or low blood pressure, heart ailments, kidney disorders, liver disorders, gynaecological problems and variety of mental problems.
Now-a-days, it is very necessary to practice yoga again to make lives of people better. Daily yoga practice provides inner and outer body strength. It helps in strengthening the body immunity system thus prevents from various diseases and cures different disease. It acts as an alternative system of medicine if practiced continuously. It also reduces the side effects of many heavy medicines taken on daily basis. The very good time for practicing the yoga like pranayam and kapal bharti is the early morning as it provides better environment to get control over body and mind.


> History of yoga.
Yoga was originated in India during ancient time by the yogis. Yoga word is originated from the Sanskrit language and has two meanings, one is union and another one is discipline. Practicing yoga teaches us about the body and mind discipline by uniting or connecting both body and mind. It is a spiritual practice used to meditate in the early morning to balance body and mind as well as remains close to the nature. It was practiced earlier by the people of religions like Hindu, Buddha and Jain. It is amazing type of exercise which makes life better by controlling the body and mind. Yoga is a science of living healthy life forever. It is like a medicine which treats various diseases gradually by regularizing the functioning of body organs.
Actually yoga is a practice of controlled body part movements and control of breathe. It enhances the inner and outer body and mind strength by connecting both to the nature. It is not a physical practice only as it makes a human able to get control over mental, emotional, and spiritual thoughts. It can be practiced by the people at any age during childhood, teenage, adult or old age. It needs only safe, slow and controlled movements of body with controlled breathing. In order to make worldwide people aware of the yoga and its benefits, an international level event (called International Day of Yoga or World Yoga Day) has been declared to celebrate it annually.


> Benefits of yoga.
The art of practicing yoga helps in controlling an individual's mind, body and soul. It brings together physical and mental disciplines to achieve a peaceful body and mind; it helps manage stress and anxiety and keeps you relaxing. It also helps in increasing flexibility, muscle strength and body tone. It improves respiration, energy and vitality. Practicing yoga might seem like just stretching, but it can do much more for your body from the way you feel, look and move.


> Importance of Yoga.
Yoga is not a religion; it is a way of living with the aim, is "a healthy mind in a healthy body". Man is a physical, mental and spiritual being; yoga helps promote a balanced development of all the three. Other forms of physical exercises, like aerobics, assure only physical well-being. They have little to do with the development of the spiritual or astral body.


> Advantages of yoga.
Yoga has many advantages over other methods of maintaining health, such as gymnastics, athletics, aerobics, games, and various other forms of exercise. It does not need any costly equipment and materials, or playgrounds, swimming pool, gyms, etc. Yoga can be practiced throughout the year. It can also be practiced inside the house or in the open, singly or in groups. The only requirement is a thick carpet spread on the floor and covered with a clean sheet of cloth.
Yoga should only be practiced on empty stomach. You can do it at any time during the day. It will benefit you irrespective of whether you are young or old, lean or heavily built, highly educated or unlettered, rich or poor, from higher or lower middle class, busy, over busy, or retired or worker in the factory or in the field. Yoga has something very valuable, and useful to offer to everyone. It is often described as the best form of health insurance for all from the age of 7 to 77 or more. Two main advantages of Yoga are prevention of disorders and ailments and maintenance of health and fitness in daily life. Other advantage include flexible muscles, supple joints, relaxed and tension–free mind and efficiently working vital organs such as the heart, lungs, endocrine glands, liver, pancreas and good balance between various functions etc.


> Disadvantages of yoga.
If you only have 20 minutes a day to spend on your body and your foremost goal is to burn lots of calories, yoga will disappoint you. Although yoga is a sound adjunct to any weight loss program and has even been shown to promote gradual weight loss, it is not primarily a fat burning enterprise.
Another potential pitfall is finding a qualified teacher. Before enrolling in a class, ask what type of training the instructor had. Currently, there is no national certification program for yoga instructors. Voluntary certification is available from various groups, but some organizations award teaching certificates to people who have completed only a weekend course. The Yoga Alliance – a voluntary national coalition of yoga organizations and individual yoga teachers – is seeking to establish voluntary national standards for yoga teachers, but not all yoga instructors agree with those standards or support the alliance’s philosophy. To reap the intangible benefits of yoga, it helps to be humble and to realize that yoga is meant to be practiced, not perfected. It’s a non-competitive activity.


> Types of yoga.

 Type:1» Vinyasa.
This style of yoga links movement with the breath, creating flowing postures that smoothly transition from one to the next. In Sanskrit, the word “vinyasa” means “connection”. Each movement connects with either an inhale or an exhale. You can expect to move through a few sun salutations, warrior poses, balancing poses, back bends, and seated stretches. Each class ends in savasana, which is the final relaxation pose.
There is no strict format or sequence of poses in a vinyasa class, allowing for more creativity on the part of the teacher. Some classes are more spiritual, incorporating breath work, chanting and meditation, while others are more athletically-oriented. It depends on the instructor, so if one class doesn’t suit you, try a different instructor.

 Type:2» Hatha Yoga.
In Sanskrit, “Hatha” means force. It describes the physical practice of yoga, so all other types of yoga fall under the category of Hatha. If you see Hatha Yoga on a class schedule, it means you’ll find a slower-paced class with little-to-no “flow” between poses. It’s a gentle class that’s perfect for beginners or the after-work yogi looking to wind-down. Here, you’ll learn basic postures, breath work, relaxation techniques, and meditation.

 Type:3» Bikram.
Bikram yoga is best known for hot rooms and sweat dripping postures. This style of vinyasa yoga was developed by Bikram Choudhury and is comprised of 26 postures performed in strict sequential order. Bikram chose these specific postures because he believes they systematically challenge the entire body -the organs, veins, ligaments, and muscles.

 Type:4» Ashtanga.
 Ashtanga yoga is considered a modern-day form of classical Indian yoga. It’s also known as “Power” yoga. Like vinyasa, movement and breath are linked. However, in Ashtanga, the movements are predefined. You move through four phases—an opening phase, one of six “series”, backbending, and inversions. There is an element of progression in Ashtanga: if you’re a beginner to the practice, you’ll start with the Primary series. When you’ve mastered that series, you will graduate to a more difficult series and so on. Advancing through the poses can take years or decades; however, the focus of the practice is not on advancement to more difficult levels, rather, it is to maintain internal focus.

 Type:5» Kundalini.
Grounded in the Chakra system, Kundalini focuses on the breath and core work. Kundalini strives to develop the mind, awareness, and consciousness. Each pose is associated with a different breathing technique that is believed to intensify the effects of the posture. Kundalini is much more spiritual and meditative than other styles of yoga. It emphasizes breathing, chanting, meditation, and hand gestures (mudras). Although this class often involves more sitting than other styles, it is still physically demanding. This class offer both physical and mental challenges.

 Type:6» Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation).
Regular practice of Sun Salutation offers a lot of interesting benefits for every part of the body. These powerful yoga poses have a great impact on the heart, liver, intestine, stomach, chest, throat, and legs -the whole body from top to bottom. It purifies the blood and improves blood circulation throughout the body and ensures proper functioning of the stomach, bowel, and nerve centres. Practicing Sun Salutation daily helps balance the three constitutions -Vata, Pitta and Kapha -that the body is made up of.

Besides, there are many types of yoga’s, from where you can start your daily schedule with peace mind.

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