What Yoga Can Do For You

If you’ve been apprehensive about attending a yoga class because you’re afraid you won’t be able to bend into the shape of a pretzel, never fear! Yoga is a gentle, slow-moving exercise that helps to create awareness necessary to be in tune with your body. All that matters is that you do your personal best. If you can’t touch your knees at first, no problem: Postures can be modified to accommodate your current level.

And yoga can help us in so many ways. Recently, when Cait was having a mild asthma attack, a friend showed her a special yoga breathing technique that almost miraculously stopped the attack in its tracks. Who knew yoga could be good for asthma? And that’s just the beginning.

Check out this list of health and other issues that yoga can help with, here:

Practicing yoga is a perfect way to help deal with Western cultural problems of incorrect posture, aggressive lifestyles, job stress, demanding family lives, overeating and indigestion, and stiff muscles and joints.

The many benefits of yoga include increased flexibility, profound relaxation, clarity of thought, and improved muscle tone and strength, as well as improved balance, coordination, concentration, and oxygen intake.

Yoga practice can also help manage anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, blood pressure, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, heart disease, menopausal symptoms, migraines, multiple sclerosis, and osteoporosis.

For more information on yoga teachers in your area, go to the Yoga Alliance homepage.

Read more: Spirit, Fitness, Inspiration, Self-Help

Adapted from How to Feel Fabulous Today! by Stephanie Tourles (Storey Books, 2001). Copyright (c) 2001 by Stephanie Tourles. Reprinted by permission of Storey Books.
Adapted from How to Feel Fabulous Today! by Stephanie Tourles (Storey Books, 2001).

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Vita P.

1:17PM PDT on May 6, 2013

Thank you for info.

May 6
send a green star

Uddhab K.

2:02AM PDT on Apr 21, 2013

thank you.

April 21
send a green star

Elena T.

2:54AM PDT on Mar 27, 2013

Thank you :)

March 27
send a green star

Danuta W.

3:19AM PST on Feb 20, 2013

thanks for the interesting post

February 20
send a green star

Harald L.

7:34PM PST on Feb 14, 2013

Awesome!

February 14
send a green star

katarzyna p.

3:28AM PST on Jan 19, 2013

i've found through doing yoga, it's helped me to be able to stand with my feet parallel to each other for the first time in years! my balance has improved but as i am disabled and walk with a stick, i know it'll never be perfect. it's also helped me with stress/anxiety/panic attacks through the breathing exercises and to help me get back to sleep. get a good book and try it out for yourself, then maybe see about joining a class. i do it by myself and practice on the wii fit or wii fit plus. i'm looking for a decent yoga wii disk, but not found one yet