Your body is wise.
I know I’m not alone when I say I came to my yoga mat to enhance my physical health. I’ve been an athlete all my life and have always had a desire to move my body in different shapes and forms. I get satisfaction from sore muscles. It’s a reminder that I am ALIVE. Whether the soreness is from yoga, squats, walking, hiking, swimming, or riding, I am always so grateful for the feeling, grateful to have a body that moves, and grateful to feel fresh blood moving and circulating in correlation with an expansive and contracting experience of my breath.
This is prana, vital energy.
When we move our physical body and put it into different shapes and forms, we enhance our mobility, flexibility, and strength. The breath expands and contracts. We start to strengthen areas that are weak and lengthen areas that are tight, to find space and movement where there was once limitation, and to stabilize areas that are overly mobile.
By bending backward, forwards, extending, and twisting, we are strengthening and lengthening not only the spine but also the backs of the legs and the front of the body. All yoga is weight bearing, so the more weight we have on our hands the more beneficial to our bones. We shapeshift to stateshift and stateshift to shapeshift; it goes both ways. Our inner life mirrors our outer life and our outer life mirrors our inner life.
Given the entry point to yoga for so many of us is through the doorway of the physical, this is an area we start to feel results after a consistent practice. The more you practice, the faster you’ll see results. I’m not suggesting going from no yoga practice to a 60-90 minute class, 7 days a week. Even the shift towards 5-10 minutes in the morning is going to make a HUGE impact on blood flow, digestion, and energy throughout the day. Instead of making excuses for not being able to make it to a class or have solo time at home with no distractions, bust out your favorite poses on the living room floor. No mood, no mat, just you, your breath, and your body changing shape.
Some of the physical benefits of yoga are:
- Improves your posture,
- Increases blood flow,
- Circulates your lymph,
- Boosts immunity,
- Ups your heart rate,
- Drops your blood pressure,
- Regulates your adrenal glands,
- Eases aches and pains, and
- Reduces your risk of lifestyle disease.
“Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body like a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Watch it, listen to it, observe its needs, its requests, and even have fun. To be sensitive is to be alive.“ – Vanda Scaravelli
Check out YOGA: An Inside Job, where I share a number of benefits to a consistent yoga practice in the domains of our mental and emotional state of being.
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Rachel Peters is a yoga teacher, yoga health coach, lifestyle and habits expert, easeful living advocate, and lover of wild places. She leads others towards Embodying Ease through a yearlong wellness & lifestyle journey to dissolve perfectionism, embody daily habits that promote mental clarity, overall ease, and deeper connection to life on this wild ride of modern living. Learn MORE today!