Yoga For Relaxation

If you want to relax and become balanced, centered, and calm, yoga will lead you there. If will help you to acheive peace of mind, improve your physical health, tone your muscles and internal organs, relieve inner tension, reduce weight, and strengthen your bones.

Yoga is a Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of spiritual insight and tranquility. The term yoga comes from a Sanskrit word which means yoke or union. It is a system of exercises practiced as part of this discipline to promote control of the body and mind.

Physical and mental exercises are designed to help achieve this goal, also called enlightenment. On the physical part, yoga postures, called asanas, are designed to tone, strengthen, and align the body. These postures are performed to make the spine flexible and healthy and to promote blood flow to all the organs, glands, and tissues, keeping all the bodily systems healthy. Mentally, yoga uses breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation (dyana) to quiet, clarify, and discipline the mind.

Yoga practice is designed to stimulate the seven major chakras, the points of focused energy in the body, which have both positive and negative qualities. The chakras are found at the crown of the head, the center of the forehead, the throat, the solar plexus, the spine, the heart, and the navel. There are about 80 main yoga postures, but only 20 of them are regularly used.

Classical yoga is separated into eight limbs, each a part of the complete system for mental, physical and spiritual well-being. Four of the limbs deal with mental and physical exercises designed to bring the mind in tune with the body. The other four deal with different stages of meditation.

There are six major types of yoga, all with the same goals of health and harmony but with varying techniques:

• Hatha

• Raja

• Karma

• Bhakti

• Jnana

• Tantra

Mental concentration in each position is very important. It improves awareness, poise and posture. If deep relaxation is one of the goals, there is often a position in which to perform meditation during the yoga routine. Each pose has steps for entering and exiting it, and each posture requires proper form and alignment. A pose is held for some time, depending one's strength and stamina. You have to be aware of when to inhale and exhale at certain points in each posture because breathing properly is a great significance to yoga. Breathing should be deep and through the nose.

Yoga routines can take anywhere from 20 minutes to two or more hours to perform a sequence of postures and a meditation. Some yoga routines can be as strenuous and some routines only stretch and align the body while the breath and heart rate are kept slow and steady.

One of the good benefits of learning yoga is that the postures can be used at any time to relieve stress and promote relaxation. You can practice yoga and use a series of postures before bed to stretch and relax muscles, relieve tension, and to promote sleep.

Yoga achieves its best results when it is practiced as a daily discipline. The basic positions can increase a person's strength, flexibility and sense of well-being almost immediately, but it can take years to be perfect.

Yoga is usually best learned from a yoga teacher or physical therapist. There are many yoga products, resources, and articles readily available online to help you.

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