What are the benefits of yoga? How can yoga improve your health and wellbeing? Discover the 9 key benefits of yoga according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The Physical and Mental Benefits of Yoga

Yoga offers a wide range of benefits for physical and mental health. Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or just starting out, incorporating yoga into your routine can lead to improved strength, balance, flexibility, pain relief, and more. The Johns Hopkins Medicine team outlines 9 key benefits of yoga that can enhance your overall wellbeing.

1. Improved Strength, Balance, and Flexibility

Yoga’s slow movements and deep breathing increase blood flow and warm up the muscles, while holding poses can build strength. One pose to try is the Tree Pose, where you balance on one foot while holding the other foot to your calf or above the knee (but never on the knee) at a right angle. Try to focus on one spot in front of you and balance for a minute.

2. Back Pain Relief

Yoga can be as effective as basic stretching for easing pain and improving mobility in people with lower back pain. The American College of Physicians recommends yoga as a first-line treatment for chronic low back pain. One pose that can help is the Cat-Cow Pose, where you get on all fours, inhale as you let your stomach drop down toward the floor, then exhale as you draw your navel toward your spine and arch your back like a cat stretching.

3. Eased Arthritis Symptoms

According to a Johns Hopkins review, gentle yoga has been shown to ease some of the discomfort of tender, swollen joints for people with arthritis.

4. Improved Heart Health

Regular yoga practice may reduce stress and body-wide inflammation, contributing to healthier hearts. Yoga can also address factors like high blood pressure and excess weight that contribute to heart disease. One pose that can be beneficial is the Downward Dog Pose, where you get on all fours, tuck your toes under, and bring your sitting bones up to form a triangle shape, keeping a slight bend in your knees while lengthening your spine and tailbone.

5. Better Sleep

Research shows that a consistent bedtime yoga routine can help you get in the right mindset and prepare your body to fall asleep and stay asleep. One pose that can promote relaxation is the Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose, where you sit with your left side against a wall, then gently turn right and lift your legs up to rest against the wall, keeping your back on the floor and your sitting bones close to the wall. You can remain in this position for 5 to 15 minutes.

6. Increased Energy and Improved Mood

After getting into a routine of practicing yoga, you may feel increased mental and physical energy, a boost in alertness and enthusiasm, and fewer negative feelings.

7. Stress Management

According to the National Institutes of Health, scientific evidence shows that yoga supports stress management, mental health, mindfulness, healthy eating, weight loss, and quality sleep. One pose that can help manage stress is the Corpse Pose (Savasana), where you lie down with your limbs gently stretched out, away from the body, with your palms facing up, and try to clear your mind while breathing deeply. You can hold this pose for 5 to 15 minutes.

8. Connection to a Supportive Community

Participating in yoga classes can ease loneliness and provide an environment for group healing and support. Even during one-on-one sessions, loneliness is reduced as one is acknowledged as a unique individual, being listened to and participating in the creation of a personalized yoga plan.

9. Promotion of Better Self-Care

The U.S. military, the National Institutes of Health, and other large organizations are incorporating scientific validation of yoga’s value in healthcare. Numerous studies show yoga’s benefits in areas like arthritis, osteopenia, balance issues, oncology, women’s health, and chronic pain.

Understanding the True Purpose of Yoga

While yoga has become mainstream in our culture, it’s important to remember that it’s about more than just physical prowess or appearance. According to Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the influential book “Autobiography of a Yogi,” the true purpose of yoga is to evolve towards a more mindful, compassionate, and spiritual society, moving away from “gross materiality.” Yoga can be a powerful tool for personal growth, self-discovery, and connection to something greater than ourselves.

9 Benefits of Yoga | Johns Hopkins Medicine

If you’ve done your “downward dog” yoga pose today, you’re probably feeling more relaxed. Regardless of your level of yoga expertise, if you’re practicing regularly, you can feel better from head to toe.

Yoga offers physical and mental health benefits for people of all ages. And, if you’re going through an illness, recovering from surgery or living with a chronic condition, yoga can become an integral part of your treatment and potentially hasten healing. 

A yoga therapist can work with patients and put together individualized plans that work together with their medical and surgical therapies. That way, yoga can support the healing process and help the person experience symptoms with more centeredness and less distress.

1. Yoga improves strength, balance and flexibility.

Slow movements and deep breathing increase blood flow and warm up muscles, while holding a pose can build strength.

Try it: Tree Pose
Balance on one foot, while holding the other foot to your calf or above the knee (but never on the knee) at a right angle. Try to focus on one spot in front of you, while you balance for one minute. 

2. Yoga helps with back pain relief.

Yoga is as good as basic stretching for easing pain and improving mobility in people with lower back pain. The American College of Physicians recommends yoga as a first-line treatment for chronic low back pain.

Try it: Cat-Cow Pose
Get on all fours, placing your palms underneath your shoulders and your knees underneath your hips. First, inhale, as you let your stomach drop down toward the floor. Then, exhale, as you draw your navel toward your spine, arching your spine like a cat stretching. 

3. Yoga can ease arthritis symptoms.

Gentle yoga has been shown to ease some of the discomfort of tender, swollen joints for people with arthritis, according to a Johns Hopkins review of 11 recent studies.

4. Yoga benefits heart health.

Regular yoga practice may reduce levels of stress and body-wide inflammation, contributing to healthier hearts.  Several of the factors contributing to heart disease, including high blood pressure and excess weight, can also be addressed through yoga.

Try it: Downward Dog Pose
Get on all fours, then tuck your toes under and bring your sitting bones up, so that you make a triangle shape. Keep a slight bend in your knees, while lengthening your spine and tailbone.

5. Yoga relaxes you, to help you sleep better.

Research shows that a consistent bedtime yoga routine can help you get in the right mindset and prepare your body to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Try It: Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose
Sit with your left side against a wall, then gently turn right and lift your legs up to rest against the wall, keeping your back on the floor and your sitting bones close to the wall. You can remain in this position for 5 to 15 minutes. 

6. Yoga can mean more energy and brighter moods.

You may feel increased mental and physical energy, a boost in alertness and enthusiasm, and fewer negative feelings after getting into a routine of practicing yoga.

7. Yoga helps you manage stress. 

According to the National Institutes of Health, scientific evidence shows that yoga supports stress management, mental health, mindfulness, healthy eating, weight loss and quality sleep.

Try It: Corpse Pose (Savasana) 
Lie down with your limbs gently stretched out, away from the body, with your palms facing up. Try to clear your mind while breathing deeply. You can hold this pose for 5 to 15 minutes.

8. Yoga connects you with a supportive community. 

Participating in yoga classes can ease loneliness and provide an environment for group healing and support. Even during one-on-one sessions loneliness is reduced as one is acknowledged as a unique individual, being listened to and participating in the creation of a personalized yoga plan.

9. Yoga promotes better self-care. 

Scientific Research on Yoga Benefits 

The U.S. military, the National Institutes of Health and other large organizations are listening to — and incorporating — scientific validation of yoga’s value in health care.

Numerous studies show yoga’s benefits in arthritis, osteopenia, balance issues, oncology, women’s health, chronic pain and other specialties.

Understanding the True Purpose of Yoga

These days, it seems like everyone is a “yogi.” Whether on social media, big pharma-sponsored TV commercials, or countless Bikram, hot, and core power studios in every major city across the globe, yoga has quickly become embedded in our mainstream culture. Thank goodness! It means we’re headed in the right direction as a civilization, evolving away from gross materiality and towards a more mindful, compassionate, and spiritual society. However, yoga is about a lot more than physical prowess, preternatural flexibility, or believe it or not—having the perfect yoga booty.

According to Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the bestselling book Autobiography of a Yogi (featured in the Netflix film Awake) and who brought yoga to the West in 1920 with the Self-Realization Fellowship, “many people think of yoga as just physical exercises—the asanas or postures that have gained widespread popularity in recent decades—but these are actually only the most superficial aspects of this profound science of unfolding the infinite potential of the human mind and soul. ” According to Yogananda, in past centuries mankind had limited knowledge of the forces that run the universe, so most of the higher techniques of yoga were little understood or practiced.

Today, an understanding of science is rapidly changing the way we view ourselves and the world. The traditional materialistic conception of life as we know it is quickly vanishing with the discovery that matter and energy are essentially one. From Einstein’s relativity theory to the rise of quantum physics, it is common knowledge that every existing substance can be reduced to a pattern or form of energy, which interacts and interconnects with other forms. Some of today’s most celebrated physicists even go a step further, identifying consciousness as the fundamental ground of all being. Thus, modern science is now confirming the truest ancient principles of yoga practiced over 5,000 years, which affirm that unity pervades the entire Universe.

According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of yoga is “1: a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation. 2 : a system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and wellbeing.” In Sanskrit, The word yoga itself means “union”: of the individual consciousness or soul with the broader Universal Consciousness or Spirit.

There are many different branches of yoga, all of which can ultimately lead to the experience of union:

• Hatha yoga—a system of physical postures, or asanas, whose higher purpose is to purify the body, giving one awareness and control over its internal states and rendering it fit for meditation. This includes ashtanga, vinyasa flow, kundalini, Bikram or “hot” yoga, acro, SUP, aerial, and all other forms of physical yoga.
• Karma yoga—selfless service to others as part of one’s larger Self, without attachment to the results; and the performance of all actions with the consciousness of God as the Doer.
• Mantra yoga—centering the consciousness within through japa, or the repetition of certain universal root-word sounds representing a particular aspect of Spirit.
• Bhakti yoga—all-surrendering devotion through which one strives to see and love the divinity in every creature and in everything, thus maintaining an unceasing worship.
• Jnana (Gyana) yoga—the path of wisdom, which emphasizes the application of discriminative intelligence to achieve spiritual liberation.
• Raja yoga—the royal or highest path of yoga, immortalized by Bhagavan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita and formally systematized in the second century B.C. by the Indian sage Patanjali, which combines the essence of all the other yoga paths. At the heart of the Raja yoga system, balancing and unifying these various approaches, is the practice of definite, scientific methods of meditation that enable one to perceive, from the very beginning of one’s efforts, glimpses of the ultimate goal—conscious union with the inexhaustibly blissful Spirit.

True Yoga: Beyond the Body

For many practitioners, the discipline of yoga centers only on Hatha, or physical asana postures. The practice begins with contorting or controlling the body, and is focused on the feelings, or sense-driven phenomena the nervous system produces as a result. When done regularly, the physical practice of yoga can help reduce stress and boost concentration, overall health, and a sense of wellbeing. Although balanced health and wellbeing are an important step towards enlightenment, it is important not to confuse this with the ultimate purpose of yoga: preparing the body for meditation. Once the restlessness of the body has been calmed through an asana practice, the consciousness can now be directed inward to the soul, which lies beyond the senses and material awareness. Absent this next step of practice, the experience of yoga can be limited to the realm of bodily sensations, like sex, drugs, alcohol, or chocolate.

A sad but poignant example of the limitations of a body-focused yoga practice is the recent sex scandal and court judgment against Bikram Choudoury, the 73-year old founder of the hotter than hot worldwide Bikram Yoga movement. Bikram, or “hot yoga” involves a 90-minute series of 26 yoga poses practiced strictly in a humid 95–108 °F environment. Despite leading countless devotees to more strength, flexibility, and wellbeing and creating a successful $75 million-dollar empire based on physical yoga poses—he has yet to pay any of the $6.8 million awarded last year to his former attorney, who alleges he sexually harassed and then fired her after she investigated rape claims from multiple students. Though he still denies the claims, the scandal calls into question the potential limitations of a physical-only yoga practice—no matter how popular.

Unaccompanied by higher levels of union through meditation and control of the body-bound senses, the practice of physical yoga is like taking 90 minutes to prepare a delicious, nourishing, three-course meal—then throwing it in the trash without tasting it.

The next time you complete your yoga asana practice, sit still. Meditate. Turn inward, and allow yourself a moment to taste the spiritual bliss you’ve worked so hard to cultivate.

This is the true purpose of yoga.

This article was first posted on Conscious Living TV.

Yoga Goals. Methods for achieving them in different traditions

Can you drink nitric acid, chew iron nails and pieces of glass? It has nothing to do with yoga. Conquer your mind, that’s all

Swami Sivananda

Do you practice yoga? Do you develop your body, look beautiful in asanas and consistently arouse the admiration of others by taking an asana for the next photo? Then you will be interested in a curious story about the attitude to “hatha yoga” of some venerable scriptures.

According to one study, the word “hatha” first appeared in Buddhist texts, namely in the Guhyasamaja Tantra, dating from the 8th century. It says that one resorts to hatha yoga who has not been able to achieve results by the methods of tantra. Tantra is the cumulative designation of practices leading to spiritual development and liberation, the result of which is darshana – the contemplation of the manifestation of God, his understanding.

In the Buddhist tradition of dzogchen and mahamudra, it is also advised to resort to the methods of tsa-lung (control of vital energy) for those who have not been able to gain an understanding of contemplation.

Hatha yoga is also mentioned in the Kalachakra Tantra. In the commentary to it, Vimalaprabha, the first definition of hatha yoga is given. According to him, hatha yoga occurs when the yogi, having forcibly brought the flow of vital breath into the central channel through the exercise in sound, can realize an unchanging moment through non-spreading, by holding the bindu of bodhichitta in the vajra jewel placed in the lotus of wisdom. And you thought two hours of complex asanas?

Despite the fact that in our time many teachers focus only on asanas and the physical body, hatha yoga should not be underestimated. Of course, much attention should be paid to this aspect of practice, because practice allows you to liberate the body, allowing the yogi not to be burdened by his worries and focus on the search for higher truths. After all, asanas are physical work.

There are a huge number of yoga poses and to say that this pose is from yoga, but this one is not, does not make sense. In the modern era, in order not to confuse the minds of practitioners, 80-90 asanas are relevant. If the practitioner feels the need for an additional posture that is not included in the limited number that this or that school ascribes to the performance, he can choose from millions and billions of other postures. The situation is even more free with names. In fact, there are as many of them as yoga schools, with rare exceptions, when the same poses in different yoga schools are called the same. This is all to the fact that concentration only on the construction of asanas, contesting by different schools of their correct performance, proving the authenticity of the name and similar things do not make much sense in the light of the above. Here, as they say, who is in what much. However, there are areas of yoga where the adjustment of asanas is at the forefront, and in the classroom, practices, pull the knees, expand the muscles, tighten the skin. It is worth saying that the obsession with perfect alignment keeps attention only on postures and the body, and at the same time does not contribute to internal concentration in any way. Too much focus on doing the right thing leads to failure. If a yoga teacher sets standards of excellence, his students are doomed to failure: stress and insecurity are not conducive to yoga practice. A yoga teacher is not an idol, and yoga is not a demonstration or a performance, the practice is not judged or judged.

Perfect asana happens when the practitioner does his best and maintains stability and relaxation, “perfect asana performance” should not be interpreted as “perfect alignment of asanas.” According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: the only criterion for a correctly performed posture is a feeling of comfort, stability and relaxation. At the same time, over-enthusiasm for the physical aspects of yoga is very limiting. Observation: Schools that rely mainly on asana alignment do little to no pranayama and meditation. This is mainly because these aspects are difficult to explain solely at the level of physiology.

Of course, the anatomy of the respiratory system is very fascinating, and meditation has noticeable manifestations at the level of the body, but the transformative power of meditation and pranayama is immeasurable and transcends material effects. Asana can also become a form of meditation if the posture is done correctly, breathing is associated with movement, and attention is concentrated and fixed at certain points. Focusing only on the body negates the true value of yoga as a whole. It would be more correct to perceive the body as a vehicle, and not as the final goal, because the worship of the body only disappoints in the end: its death is inevitable.

Yoga is not a religion, but a sacred tradition. The goal of a person practicing yoga is to connect with the Universe by achieving a transcendental state, which is called “samadhi” or “moksha”. Thus yoga is both a means and an end at the same time. It has many varieties and forms in regard to its methodology, but they all lead in principle to the same state of liberation.

Yoga can be adapted to any cultural or religious situation, to any professional activity and to any lifestyle. As Sri Aurobindo said, “all life is yoga.” He explained that if you want to become an enlightened being, then everything you do in your life can be used to expand consciousness, i.e. to achieve “yoga” (connection, unity).

The main goal of yoga

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Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively towards an object and keep that direction without being distracted.

Encyclopedia of Yoga. Yoga is a way of life on earth. > Literature > Articles >

The main goal of yoga

The main purpose of hatha yoga is to create an absolute balance of interaction and processes of the physical body, mind and energy. When such a balance exists, impulses are born that awaken the central force (sushumna nadi), which is responsible for the development of human consciousness. If hatha yoga is practiced for other purposes, its main purpose is lost.

In order to clarify this subject, it was designated by the term “hatha”, i.e. ha and tha yoga, a combination of two bija mantras. Hatha yoga explains that tha is prana, the force of life, aha is the mind, mental energy. Thus, hatha yoga means the union of pranic and mental forces. When the pranic and mental forces unite, a great event takes place in a person. This is the awakening of higher consciousness.
Prana Shakti, the life force, and Manas Shakti, the mental force, are the two fundamental creators. Every object in the universe, from the smallest atom to giant stars, is made up of these two shaktis or energies. When they interact with each other, when the play of these two shaktis takes place, then creation occurs.
When these shaktis are separated from each other or dissolved in the source, then creation disappears. This is the great pralaya, i.e. absolute destruction of matter. Modern physics confirms this theory.

All matter in the universe is alive. This is the first rule. She is also conscious. This is the second rule. Therefore, everything has a potential consciousness and everything living. In yoga, life and consciousness are known as prakrta and purusha, in tantra they are known as shakti and shiva. In hatha yoga they are called ida and pingala, in Taoism – yin and yang, and in physics – matter and energy. At different times and in different traditions they were given different names. Our physical body as we see it is gross perception. If you look at it with spiritual vision or use special electronic equipment, you may see that the physical body has a subtle counterpart.

What happens inside when you start thinking? If you have never thought about this before, please try it right now. What is thought? What happens within us when a thought forms, when it disappears, when one thought replaces another, or when they interfere with each other? This is called the play of shakti.

Therefore, the main idea of ​​hatha yoga is to create harmony between these two great forces, known as ida and pingala (emotions and mentality). In hatha yoga, first of all, there is a purification of the entire mechanism of the body, of the entire physical complex. You must always keep in mind that the body, mind and spirit are not three different entities, but one. On one level of existence you see the body. On another level, you perceive it as intelligence. One should never consider the spirit apart from the body and the body apart from the spirit. This is a whole.

Satyananda Saraswati

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Natalya Chistyakova

Yoga for me is a stream of infinite Power and Knowledge, which gives an understanding of the energy and spiritual structure of the human body. And also the joy of feeling the divine presence in all the space around me, the joy that I want to share with others.

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952)

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was a student of Sri Yukteswar. At the feet of this great teacher, in an astonishingly short period of six months, he attained a high state of samadhi, or permanent oneness with God. The Guru left him in the ashram for another nine and a half years, preparing him for the mission of spreading yoga in the West during this time. “The West,” Sri Yukteswar explained, “has come to high material achievements, but it lacks spiritual understanding. By the will of God, you are destined to play a role in teaching humanity the balance between material and inner, spiritual life”

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