Do you like Yoga?

First of all and most obviously, yoga is a fantastic workout for my body. I can adapt
the practices to my own speed and level of comfort. No matter which yoga
exercises I choose, the practices will always be part of a great workout routine.
There are some fantastic series of movements out there that are perfect for every
kind of day and for every kind of person, meaning theres no reason not to start
doing some yoga as soon as you can.

How often do you practice Yoga?

Yoga is amazingeven if I only practice for one hour a week, I experience the
benefits of the practice. If I can do more than that, I will experience more benefits. I
practice two or three times a week, for an hour or an hour and a half each time. I
dont let time constraints or unrealistic goals be an obstacle. I will likely find that
after a while my desire to practice expands naturally and you will find yourself
doing more and more.
Do you consider Yoga is important?
Importance of Yoga
Yoga is not a religion; it is a way of living whose 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.
Yogic exercises recharge the body with cosmic energy This facilitates
Attainment of perfect equilibrium and harmony
Promotes self- healing.
Removes negative blocks from the mind and toxins from the body
Enhances Personal power
Increases self-awareness
Helps in attention focus and concentration, especially important for children
Reduces stress and tension in the physical body by activating the parasympathetic
nervous system
Benefits of Yoga
The art of practicing yoga helps in controlling an individual mind, body and soul. It
brings together physical and mental disciplines to achieve a peaceful body and
mind, it helps to manage stress and anxiety and keep you relaxing. It also helps in
increasing flexibility, muscle strength and body tone. It improved 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.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVATAGES ABOUT 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 tensionfree mind and efficiently working vital
organs such as the heart, lungs, endocrine glands, liver, pancreas and good balance
between various functions, such as neuromuscular coordination, 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 weightloss program and has even been shown to promote gradual weight
loss, it is not primarily a fatburning 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 alliances 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. Its a noncompetitive activity. According to Georg
Feuerstein, Ph.D., founderdirector of the U.S. based Yoga Research and Education
Center, at the heart of yoga is The assumption that you have not yet tapped into
your full potential as a human being.

Even for the most openminded beginner, yoga is not easy to learn. Although you
dont need to be flexible or in shape to do yoga, the practice is physically,
emotionally and mentally challenging.