Stuart Williams
In a world where we are becoming more and more paranoid about this, that and everything due to media pressures, peer influences and greater knowledge of the world of medicine in general.
I don’t believe you if you say you haven’t used the internet to self-diagnose as soon as you sneeze several times. The need to take a moment to reflect, relax and rejuvenate is greater than ever.
Yoga has its place here. There are other techniques, don’t get me wrong but very few methods like yoga encapsulate the body and mind in such a wholesome way that actual medical enhancements are commonplace.
With my background in sports science and physiology, I know a lot about how the body functions and how important it is to stay healthy in both a physical and mental sense. The two just naturally go together, you really cannot have one without the other.
So you can keep fit, go to the gym regularly, go jogging 3 times a week, swim twice a week whatever floats your boat and you can meditate, take an hour out reading your favorite book or have a nice relaxing bath all of which are excellent.
However, they can be somewhat separate to each other and let us face it who has time do all these things, especially like myself with a young family I would be lucky to be able to go the gym once a week never mind do all or some of the activities I’ve mentioned.
Yoga is a way of combining these things together, it comes in a package if you want and very few things bring together a way of staying strong, readily alert and free from an illness like yoga can.
People decide to take up yoga for a variety of reasons, they are stressed out to the max, feel unhealthy or think they need to lose weight, they could even be depressed.
Believe you me I’ve been there and then some, I have suffered from severe depression for years now coupled to the fact that I have a chronic back problem that is never going to go away.
The 2 are actually very much linked, there have been numerous studies looking into the links between chronic illness and depression.
Since taking up yoga, I have felt a reduction in my back pain and as such have managed to come off a lot of my pain medication and have felt greater confidence in myself and in my ability to face adversities.
Part of the reason I decided to set up this website was to encourage others to take up the practice in the hope that they would experience similar results as me.
In Summary Then Yoga Can:
- relieve stress and people suffering from anxiety
- reduce muscle pain and improve cardiovascular health
- improve your mood and body at the same time
- boost self-confidence and your libido
- rid the body of harmful toxins
- increase flexibility, strength, and stamina
Things to Take into Account Before Participating in Yoga:
- being really out of a shape yoga can cause more harm than good
- it can cause damage to tendons and ligaments and to the abdomen
- farting can be an issue when doing poses
- if you are body conscious wearing tight-fitting clothes can cause embarrassment
- when starting out not being as good as others can be off-putting
- many people try to push themselves too hard too fast again causing more harm than good
In answer to all these issues, it would be hypocritical for me to say that yoga is maybe therefore not good for people falling into some or all of these categories.
This couldn’t be further from the truth, yoga is something that can be done by anyone at any age. I am just merely pointing these facts out to inform you, the reader that they do exist and that they should be brought to your attention.
-In any activity or process that both the mind and body are being used you should always do things in the correct way, consult a professional or spend some time researching (here would be a great start!) what it is that you are getting yourself into.
Take it slow, do things at your own pace and never push yourself too hard too fast.
