Five Surprising Ways Yoga Can Help You

It is fair to say that the majority of people first take to the yoga mat in order to enhance their physical fitness and to enjoy some relief from stress. As time goes on, it is normal that the primary reason that a person continues to do yoga may change, and that they will experience a multitude of unexpected benefits! Here’s just five ways yoga can help you!

Helps you focus

We’ve all been there – multitasking, endless to-do lists, and distractions coming from every direction.

Constantly being bombarded by distractions around us can make concentrating feel like an impossible task. Yet being mindful is key to living in the present moment, and presence is key to concentration and staying focused.

Yoga can help to bring your awareness to the present moment and focus your attention on your breath, the movement, and poses which will in turn improve concentration. Yoga is all about linking breath with motion and becoming fully present in mind and body. The practice itself is centred on concentration – focus on the breath, the alignment, and the movement.

Poses which include balancing force us to concentrate on the present moment and the task at hand. We are forced to become present, concentrate, and focus on these points to maintain our balance and stop us falling.

Improves your balance

To improve your balance, you need to strengthen the muscles that support your body. By doing yoga, the physical and breathing exercises can help in strengthening the core of the body and improve the reflexes, making it easier to improve the body’s physical balance.

Yoga can help with balance by training you to keep a steady focus. Maintaining a gaze on a certain point helps you from toppling in your Tree pose. Yoga increases your awareness, therefore decreasing your chance of falling

Increases your self-esteem

As you continue to practice yoga regularly, your self-esteem is going to get a natural boost. This is something that often goes hand in hand with the satisfaction of learning something new. It also comes from being able to see the progress that you are making. This is something that is easy to witness when it comes to yoga because you can physically see and feel the improvement in how well you hold and move between the poses.

Once you open yourself up to the challenge of learning yoga, you will embark upon a process of learning about yourself. This is something that will continue for as long as you engage with your yoga practice, and there’s no limits to how much you might discover!

Encourages self-care

Moving your body is a simple way to engage in a burst of self-care! The physical and mental health benefits of exercise should never be overlooked.

Exercise and physical activity are incredibly important aspects of basic self-care. Making a deliberate effort to exercise can be something that drops to the bottom of your list of priorities when you are busy, but it is possibly one of the most important things to give your time to.

Engaging in some form of exercise, at least once a day, can serve as a serious act of self-care. This can help to motivate you in other areas of your day-to-day life, and to keep your mind focused.

Exercise will help to boost your mood and protect your physical and mental health. The successful combination of these things will help to create the mindset necessary for being your best self each day.

Makes you happier

Being able to maintain a positive and relaxed mindset is a practical skill that can be of benefit in many areas of your life. It isn’t difficult to let your responsibilities pile up and seem as though they are totally on top of you. This can be quite an exhausting state to continue living within.

One of the incredible benefits of regularly practicing yoga is that it helps to encourage balance in your life. It does this in many ways, not least of all by naturally guiding you to a calmer state of mind.

As you probably already know, when you are calmer, you are able to make difficult decisions with greater ease. This state of mind also allows you to navigate complicated situations with finer clarity.

The lessons that you learn on the mat, such as patience and progress, will stay with you outside of your yoga practice. Once you begin to understand how you can push the boundaries of your capabilities through the physical act of yoga, you will also be able to have this realisation in other areas of your life.

As well as helping you to relax, yoga can help you to become more aware of your physical presence. As these progresses, you may notice a difference in the way that you hold yourself and how confident you feel moving through the world and interacting with others.

HELP YOURSELF WITH YOGA

These five things are just a handful of ways that yoga can help you take better care of yourself, and there are so many other ways to embrace this concept.

To get my top tips every month, Click to sign up to my Get Inspired Newsletter and receive my tips immediately to your inbox!