Advice on whether to include yoga in your weight loss regimen. Find out if doing yoga will help you lose weight. Excess weight gain has become a phenomenon in today's age, when lifestyles have become sedentary, and food more liberal with extra calories. Today our children prefer T.V. over their friends and play, merely a reflection of their parents who also somewhere prefer T.V. over socializing or even over spending time with their children (if they spend some time surely some running around will help burn some calories). These are only a few factors, which have resulted in increasing amount of people with the problem of excess weight or obesity. The practice of yoga makes the body strong and flexible and helps to improve the overall function of the digestive, respiratory, circulatory and hormonal systems. Yoga assists us in releasing mental stress bringing clarity and peace of mind. Yoga opens a door into your heart and helps you to practice self-love and self-acceptance so that you become emotionally stable. But this only the beginning of a life-long journey towards your core, the realization of your true, essential self, the ultimate aim of yoga. Yoga has helped me to lose a substantial amount of weight. In my experience, when you remember who you are and align yourself with what is truly important to you, you will return to your true nature of health and happiness and your body will return to it's perfect weight.
Taking deep breath in yoga is very useful to enhance the oxygen intake to the body cells containing the fat cells in body. Other yoga asanas like tree pose, sun salute, triangle pose, locust pose, camel pose, wind releasing pose, cat pose, angle pose, Hero pose II and I, aeroplane pose are also useful to reduce body weight. Why, then, don't more people practice yoga. People think of yoga as being passive and mystical and not relating to to their lives. Yoga improves both the physical body and the mind. It's widely practiced in Eastern countries but not so in the West. Only 2% of the American adult population practice yoga. Obesity and Yoga :
- Yoga has considered all aspects of Obesity (physical, emotional and mental)
- Regular practice of Yoga and controlled life style reduces obesity (weight is reduced).
- Yoga makes human being agile, efficient and slim.
- Yoga is suitable for people in any age group.
Kundalini, which was introduced to this country in 1969 by Yogi Bhajan, is more active, combining various modes of breathing, movement and meditation. It is based on the idea that body energy that's coiled below the base of the spine can be tapped so that it travels upward through different energy centers or chakras until it reaches the head.
At this point one arrives at one's highest potential. Some of us have a habit of eating between the meals. Here also Yogic practices come handy. One can take the help of Yogic aids when feeling tempted in between the meals. In such situations one may intentionally turn to Yoga rather than looking for some snacks. The knowledge and power derived from Yoga also makes us aware of problems like obesity which may prevent the individual from overeating. Such is the magic and charisma of Yoga that you tend to attain a balanced weight i.e. if your weight is normal, it will remain the same where as in case of underweight, you will gain weight. Yoga for weight loss can also be used in another way even if you don't have an eating disorder. It can tune your mind and body to be in complete synchrony. Even if you are otherwise completely healthy, yoga for weight loss and overall balance of your body and mind can still obviously be a good thing.
By Ricky Hussey
