The Benefits of Yoga

Yoga helps us to develop a deep connection with ourselves and others. Regular practice helps us to become calmer, centred, focused, and at ease and happy with ourselves. We become more fearless, able to overcome our anxiety, and ready to deal with whatever life throws our way, without getting stirred up by it.

Some of the 'side effects' of this are that we have more energy, we sleep better, we have a stronger immune system and don't get so ill so often, we are in balance with our bodymind and find that we eat better, lose weight and come to truly love ourselves. Who would not choose this?

Yoga helps us re-connect with our bodies. Disconnection with the body is a cultural epidemic. Of all the losses rupturing the human soul today, this alienation may be the most alarming because it separates us from the very roots of our existence. With jobs that are routine and desk-bound, the constant pressures on our time and the overload of information from our environment that assaults our senses everyday, we lose the joy that arises from the dynamic connection with our body.

We are taught to control the body by way of the mind. But the body has an intelligence whose mysteries the mind has yet to fathom. We read in books how to eat, how much sleep to get, how to relax, and impose these practices on the body rather than listening from within. Without the body as a unifying figure of existence, we become fragmented. We become ill, tired, stressed, sleepless, overweight, we develop musculo-skeletal problems such as backache, or find ourselves becoming overly emotional or unable to connect to our emotions and many other things. Healing the split between mind and body is a necessary step in becoming whole again and living to our fullest potential. Yoga serves to reconnect the mind and body, helping us find true fulfillment and happiness.