Benefits of Yoga Top 10 Benefits of Daily Yoga
Weight loss, a strong and flexible body, glowing beautiful skin, peaceful mind, good health whatever you may be looking for, yoga has it on offer. However, very often, yoga is only partially understood as being limited to asanas (yoga poses). As such, its benefits are only perceived to be at the body level and we fail to realize the immense benefits yoga offers in uniting the body, mind and breath. When you are in harmony, the journey through life is calmer, happier and more fulfilling.
With all this and much more to offer, the benefits of yoga are felt in a profound yet subtle manner. Here, we look at the top 10 benefits of regular yoga practice.
1. All-round fitness. You are truly healthy when you are not just physically fit but also mentally and emotionally balanced. As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar puts it, ?Health is not a mere absence of disease. It is a dynamic expression of life in terms of how joyful, loving and enthusiastic you are. This is where yoga helps: postures, pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditation are a holistic fitness package.
2. Weight loss. What many want! Yoga benefits here too. Sun Salutations and Kapal Bhati pranayama are some ways to help lose weight with yoga. Moreover, with regular practice of yoga, we tend to become more sensitive to the kind of food our body asks for and when. This can also help keep a check on weight.
3. Stress relief. A few minutes of yoga during the day can be a great
way to get rid of stress that accumulates daily – in both the body and mind. Yoga postures, pranayama and meditation are effective techniques to release stress. You can also experience how yoga helps de-tox the body and de-stress the mind at the Sri Sri Yoga Level 2 Course.
4. Inner peace. We all love to visit peaceful, serene spots, rich in natural beauty. Little do we realize that peace can be found right within us and we can take a mini-vacation to experience this any time of the day! Benefit from a small holiday every day with yoga and meditation. Yoga is also one of the best ways to calm a disturbed mind.
5. Improved immunity. Our system is a seamless blend of the body, mind and spirit. An irregularity in the body affects the mind and similarly unpleasantness or restlessness in the mind can manifest as an ailment in the body. Yoga poses massage organs and stregthen muscles; breathing techniques and meditation release stress and improve immunity.
z6. Living with greater awareness. The mind is constantly involved in activity swinging from the past to the future but never staying in the present. By simply being aware of this tendency of the mind, we can actually save ourselves from getting stressed or worked up and relax the mind. Yoga and pranayama help create that awareness and bring the mind back to the present moment, where it can stay happy and focused
7. Better relationships. Yoga can even help improve your relationship with your spouse, parents, friends or loved ones! A mind that is relaxed, happy and contented is better able to deal with sensitive relationship matters. Yoga and meditation work on keeping the mind happy and peaceful; benefit from the strengthened special bond you share with people close to you.
8. Increased energy. Do you feel completely drained out by the end of the day? Shuttling between multiple tasks through the day can sometimes be quite exhausting. A few minutes of yoga everyday provides the secret to feeling fresh and energetic even after a long day. A 10-minute online guided meditation benefits you immensely, leaving you refreshed and recharged in the middle of a hectic day.
9. Better flexibility & posture. You only need to include yoga in your daily routine to benefit from a body that is strong, supple and flexible. Regular yoga practice stretches and tones the body muscles and also makes them strong. It also helps improve your body posture when you stand, sit, sleep or walk. This would, in turn, help relieve you of body pain due to incorrect posture.
10. Better intuition. Yoga and meditation have the power to improve your intuitive ability so that you effortlessly realize what needs to be done, when and how, to yield positive results. It works. You only need to experience it yourself.
Remember, yoga is a continuous process. So keep practicing! The deeper you move into your yoga practice, the more profound are its benefits.
Benefits of Meditation
Are you seeking calmness, peace of mind, joy, vibrant health, greater energy, positive relationships and fulfillment in life? Do you wish to be stress-free and worry-free?
You can enjoy all these benefits and much more, with meditation. Meditation offers innumerable benefits for your body, mind and spirit. The rest you gain in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep. The deeper your rest, the more dynamic your activity is.
De-stress with Meditation
Meditation has two important benefits:
* Meditation prevents stress from getting into the system
* Meditation releases accumulated stress that is in the system
Both of these happen simultaneously, leaving one refreshed and joyful.
Physical Benefits of Meditation
With meditation, the physiology undergoes a change and every cell 
in the body is filled with more prana (energy). This results in joy, peace, enthusiasm as the level of prana in the body increases.
On a physical level, meditation:
* Lowers high blood pressure
* Lowers the levels of blood lactate, reducing anxiety attacks
* Decreases any tension-related pain, such as, tension headaches, ulcers, insomnia, muscle and joint problems
* Increases serotonin production that improves mood and behavior
* Improves the immune system
* Increases the energy level, as you gain an inner source of energy
Mental Benefits of Meditation
Meditation brings the brainwave pattern into an Alpha state that promotes healing. The mind becomes fresh, delicate and beautiful. With regular practice of meditation:
* Anxiety decreases
* Emotional stability improves
* Creativity increases
* Happiness increases
* Intuition develops
* Gain clarity and peace of mind
* Problems become smaller
* Meditation sharpens the mind by gaining focus and expands through relaxation
* A sharp mind without expansion causes tension, anger and frustration
* An expanded consciousness without sharpness can lead to lack of action/progress
* The balance of a sharp mind and an expanded consciousness brings perfection
Meditation makes you aware – that your inner attitude determines your happiness
Other Benefits of Meditation
Emotional steadiness and harmony: it cleanses and nourishes you 
from within and calms you, whenever you feel overwhelmed, unstable, or emotionally shut down.
Meditation brings harmony in creation: when you meditate, you are in the space of vastness, calmness and joy and this is what you emit into the environment, bringing harmony to the Creation/planet.
Consciousness evolves: with the assimilation of meditation into daily life, your consciousness evolves and in time, is able to experience the higher and refined states of consciousness.
When your consciousness evolves and expands, the disturbances in your life become negligible. Anger and disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish. You start living in ‘the moment’ and let go of ‘the past’.
Personal Transformation: meditation can bring about a true personal transformation. As you learn more about yourself, you ll naturally want to discover more about the mystery of life, this universe, etc. Then the questions that arise in the mind are – What is the meaning of Life? What is its purpose? What is this world, what is love, what is knowledge…?
Once these questions arise, know that you are very fortunate. These questions need to be understood; you cannot find the answers in books. As you live through answering them you ll witness that life transformation to a richer level.
Cosmic consciousness dawns in you
With the assimilation of meditation into daily life, the fifth state of consciousness*, called cosmic consciousness, dawns. Cosmic consciousness – is to perceive the whole cosmos as part of oneself.
When you perceive the world as a part of yourself, love flows strongly between the world and you. This love empowers you to bear the opposing forces and the disturbances in your life. Anger and disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish. You start living in ‘the moment’ and let go of ‘the past’.
The confluence of knowledge, understanding and practice makes life complete. When you grow into higher states of consciousness, you become beautiful yet strong – a soft, delicate and beautiful blossom capable of accommodating different values in life without any conditions.
How to get the benefits
To experience the benefits of meditation, regular practice is 
necessary. It takes only a few minutes every day. Once imbibed into the daily routine, meditation becomes the best part of your day!
Meditation is like a seed. When you cultivate a seed with love, the more it blossoms. Similarly, the sapling of consciousness is within you. It needs to be nurtured with simple meditation techniques. Some palm trees yield in three years, some in ten years. And those that aren t nurtured – never yield! They simply exist.
Busy people from all backgrounds are grateful to pause and enjoy a refreshing few minutes of meditation each day. Dive deep into yourself and enrich your life.
Yoga, in general, is a spiritual practice or discipline that helps the individual unify his/her body, mind, and heart. Yoga is a direct experience of the vast interrelatedness of all life and of all things. You will feel at peace at the end of a yoga class because there is a natural realignment of your body which leads to a natural realignment of your perception of life and of who you are. You will need to develop discipline and there is hard work involved especially when you first begin. Yoga is much more that postural alignment and breathing. If you stay with yoga long enough, you may discover a “spiritual awakening” (for lack of a better phrase.) You will find out that who you are, is not just your body, and not just the conversations in your mind.
Through steady practice, you will manifest less self-importance, less material attachment, more capacity for joy, less judgmentalness, and more tolerance toward others.
Yoga is about transformation, not hamstrings, but along the way we have to take care of them. This is not dogma, but a direct experience. Yoga will open your eyes to things you have not experienced before. It will take you beyond the mundane survival level and into a whole new appreciation of life.
Genuine yoga will change your life, your habits, your body, your health, your mind, your breathing patterns, your attitudes, your outlook. Yoga is about learning from direct experience. You will develop wisdom of how your body works most efficiently. You will learn how your conscious and unconsious mind can either support or harm you, and then later, a deeper wisodm naturally gets revealed. The benefits of Yoga will come to those who practice.
There are many types of Yoga. That which comes to mind first is Hatha Yoga an element of Raja yoga, yoga that deals mainly with physical postures and breathing. Karma Yoga emphasizes spiritual practice to help the individual unify body, mind, and heart through certain practices in ones daily life and work. Bhakti Yoga, a devotional form, generally encompasses chanting, reading of scriptures and worship practices. In general, Yoga is any practice that can turn the practitioner inward to find and experience an individuals spiritual essence, to realize or awaken to his/her spiritual nature. Another type of yoga is jnana yoga.
Each posture, or asana, is held for a period of time and synchronised with the breath. Generally, a yoga session begins with gentle asanas and works up to the more vigorous or challenging postures.
