THE
ADVANTAGE OF YOGA FOR HEALTH
The healthy body have
become the dream for all people in the world since a long
time. To get a healthy body, we can go to the gymnastic place. Because it
is be best choice for all people in this time. But by exercise
the gymnastic we can only form physically of our body. It is not make our soul
be healthier. To get good physic and healthy soul, there is a good alternative
for us. It is by exercise yoga. Yoga is a practical aid, not a religion.
Yoga derives its philosophy from Indian metaphysical beliefs. The word yoga
comes from Sanskrit language and means union or merger ( union between the
limited self and the Divine Self ). The aim of Yoga is not really to unite us
with anything for we are already united. It is to help us realize our identity
with the Divine Self, to make us know and tune into our intrinsic nature(3).
Yoga is an ancient art based on a harmonizing system of development for the
body, mind, and spirit. To achieve this, yoga uses movement, breath, posture,
relaxation and meditation in order to establish a healthy, lively and balanced
approach to life(2). Most people think that yoga just involved
stretching and flexibility exercises, but there is more to yoga than just
these, yoga is more about creating balance in the body and mind. The different
poses in yoga has specific physical benefits. The practice of yoga makes the
body strong and flexible, it also improves the functioning of the respiratory,
circulatory, digestive, and hormonal systems. Yoga brings about emotional
stability and clarity of mind(1). So it is important for us to know
about the advantage of yoga for our health.
Yoga can
prevent our body from disease so it has a lot of advantage for our health(4).
The advantage of yoga is increasing flexibility. Yoga can increase flexibility
because yoga has positions and movement that make our body can be limber. Stretching
our tight body in new ways will help it to become more flexible, bringing
greater range of motion to muscles and joints. Over time, we can expect to gain
flexibility in our hamstrings,
back,
shoulders,
and hips(5).
Beside that it can increase lubrication of the joint,
ligaments and tendons. Likewise, the well researched yoga positions exercise
the different tendons and ligaments of the body. Surprisingly it has been found
that the body which may have been quite rigid starts experiencing a remarkable
flexibility in even those parts which have not been consciously work upon. It
is here that the remarkable research behind yoga positions proves its mettle.
Seemingly unrelated "non strenuous" yoga positions act upon certain
parts of the body in an interrelated manner. When done together, they work in
harmony to create a situation where flexibility is attained relatively easily(4).
Yoga can also massaging all organs of the body. Yoga is perhaps the only form
of activity which massages all the internal glands and organs of the body in a
thorough manner, including those, such as the prostate that hardly get externally
stimulated during our entire lifetime. Yoga acts in a wholesome manner on the
various body parts. This stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits
us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning at the first possible
instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder(4). The other
advantage of yoga is stopping detoxification(5). By gently
stretching muscles and joints as well as massaging the various organs, yoga
ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body. This helps in
the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny as well as providing
nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as delayed
ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life. Now, almost people in the world
especially in Indonesia have a job. They are very busy with their job. They
have to finishing their schedule that they have. So, everyone sometimes feel
boring and stress. Stress can be reduced by yoga too(1). Because, it
can make their mind fresh by the position and movement in yoga. So if their
mind are fresh, they will fell comfort and stress can be lost. Physical
activity is good for relieving stress, and this is particularly true of yoga.
Because of the concentration required, our daily troubles, both large and
small, seem to melt away during the time we are doing yoga. This provides a
much needed break from our stressors, as well as helping put things into
perspective. The emphasis yoga places on being in the moment can also help
relieve stress, as we learn not to dwell on past events or anticipate the
future. Yoga can also prevent the causes of some
types of back pain by increase flexibility and strength(4). If
our body are flexible and strength, our back can kept from pain because our
body can be limber and the back is not become rigid. Beside that yoga will give
us an increased awareness of our own body. we are often called upon to make
small, subtle movements to improve our alignment. Over time, this will increase
our level of comfort in our own body. This can lead to improved posture and
greater self confidence. Most of us breathe very shallowly into the lungs and
don't give much thought to how we breathe. Yoga breathing exercises, called Pranayama
yoga, focus the attention on the breath and teach us how to better use our
lungs, which benefits the entire body. Certain types of breath can also help
clear the nasal passages and even calm the central nervous system, which has
both physical and mental benefits(5).
(Picture Source: http://www.indiyogastudio.com.au/indiyoga/) |
Because the
cost of medication is too expensive, yoga is the best alternative to keep in
good health. Yoga can keep our body from diseases(4). The
practice of yoga makes the body strong and flexible, it also improves the
functioning of the respiratory, circulatory, digestive, and hormonal systems(1).
Yoga brings about emotional stability and clarity of mind. By doing movement and position in yoga can make the blood
circulation in our body become fluent. So it can make our body healthy and look
fresh. Yoga can not did promiscuously, it is
dangerous for beginner. So we need a teacher who have a skill about it. Beside
that if we doing yoga, we must step by step to get a good result. If we
exercise yoga regularly, it can be useful for our health. So try it regularly(1).
LITERATURE
1.
http//www.google.com/yoga/nop 12th 2008/at 07.00
pm
2.
http//www.google.com/the definition of yoga/October 25th
2008
3.
http//www.google.com/the introduction of yoga/august 9th
2008
4.
http//www.yahoo.com/yoga and health/august 1st 2008
5.
http//www.yahoo.com/the benefit of yoga/September 3rd 2008