It’s never too late to start and reap the benefits.
Practising yoga has heaps of benefits, it’s a well-known stress-reliever and anxiety-easer while improving your overall sense of wellbeing. Here are our top 4 benefits of yoga explained by our favourite Instagram yogis.
1. Tania Dalton – The mind benefits from stillness
Tania, a personal trainer based in Australia explains, “the body benefits from movement and the mind benefits from stillness” a mantra we wholeheartedly agree with. A moment of calmness and tranquillity from the business of life has brilliant benefits for your mind. Studies show that meditation and yoga modulate the stress response and they help depression and anxiety.
2. Lucy B – Deep breathing
Lucy aka @tea.with.lucy.b is a Health & Wellness Coach and Private Yoga Teacher living in Dorset and a kick-ass advocate for positive ageing, showing the virtues that come with being older. She says, “In Yoga, you constantly breathe and move with your breath” explaining it’s what makes yoga different other exercises. This breath is what makes us relaxed and calm, and brings us to the present. This allows us to focus our attention on positive thoughts, while helping our muscles achieve the difficult positions required in yoga with better coordination.
3. Becca Looney – Prevent injury and improve circulation
Becca Looney or known as @theyogadarling on Instagram from Phoenix, Arizona is a baby boomer with a passion for yoga. She explains “‘prevent injury and improve circulation in just four weeks.’ Those are reasons I practice yoga, so that statement jives with me for sure. I know as we age it’s so important for our hips and legs to be strong, as the number one cause of injury for the elderly are falls. I never thought of the circulation part of staying limber, but of course our blood, oxygen and everything else that flows through our bodies would work better if we weren’t stiff. Think of trying to drink out of a pinched straw!”.
4. Lorraine C Ladish – With yoga, each pose brings a different energy
Lorraine C Ladish is a bilingual writer, journalist, mom and yogini. She writes, “according to Yoga Journal, ‘Yoga teaches that each pose has an energetic quality. For instance, some poses are uplifting and energizing, while others are soothing and stabilizing, Malasana has a grounding quality—it taps into a downward-flowing energy known in yoga as apana vayu—and is a good pose to practice whenever you need to bring on calm.”
The fantastic thing about Yoga is that it’s never too late to start and see benefits, whether you want a moment of tranquillity to ease your stress or improve your strength, focus and mental resilience. As Lucy B explains the exercise was used as a prescription for general health issues in ancient India, “back in the day the doctors in India wouldn’t prescribe medicine they would prescribe you a little yoga sequence to do”. The benefits of Yoga are written in history, so why not prescribe yourself a Yoga routine and get started!
