A deeper understanding of the longevity benefits of Yoga
Globally, the population is aging at an unprecedented rate. Over 2 billion people will be over the age of 60 by 2050. As we age, we’re likely to experience more age-related degenerative problems, but declining health doesn’t have to be an inevitable part of getting older. Research has shown that yoga can have a beneficial impact on aging prevention and even reversal.
Today, we will look at how yoga can increase the longevity of the human body, mind, and soul.
What is Yoga?
According to Medical News Today, Yoga is a mind and body practice. Various styles of yoga combine physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation or relaxation.
Yoga dates back thousands of years. It is a practice that involves breathing, meditation, and exercise and is based on the philosophy of man striving to be in harmony with himself and the world.
The chakras are said to be centers of energy, thoughts, feelings, and the physical body. As per yogic teachings, chakras determine how people experience reality through emotional reactions, desires and aversions, levels of confidence or fear, and even physically manifesting symptoms.
Whenever energy is blocked in a chakra, it leads to physical, mental, or emotional imbalances that manifest as symptoms such as anxiety, lethargy, or poor digestion.
According to a 2017 national survey, one in seven adults in the United States practiced yoga in the past 12 months.
In what ways does yoga promote health and well-being?
Yoga makes people more aware of their bodies and the importance of taking care of them, including exercising and eating healthily. In addition to increasing control over the body and food choices, yoga can also reduce anxiety, a factor that drives overeating.
Yoga helps you utilize your body as a whole.
As part of balanced yoga practice, every part of the body is utilized. The practice begins with sun salutations to warm up the body, followed by twists, inversions, backbends, seated poses, core work, and corpse pose (final relaxation pose). With age, unused parts of our bodies can tighten and become incapable of functioning correctly. A regular yoga practice keeps your body working at its optimal.
Helps with joint protection
Poses that are weight-bearing such as plank, chaturunga, and downward facing dog, keep the joints in good health without putting too much strain on them.
Helps with overall balance
The ability to maintain balance becomes more difficult as you age, especially if you lack practice. In yoga, balancing poses like eagle pose (garudasana), half moon pose (ardha chandrasana), and side plank pose (vasisthasana) help you develop the focus and skill necessary to maintain balance and stay agile.
How does yoga support longevity?
Research was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016. Researchers found that yoga promotes brain activity, precisely memory function, more effectively than puzzles or other mind-stimulating activities. Participants in the study reported decreased levels of anxiety and stress, which are both associated with faster aging.
A 2017 study shows the impact yoga and meditation have on cellular aging.
“Making yoga and meditation an integral part of our lifestyle may hold the key to delay aging, or aging gracefully, prevent the onset of multifactorial complex lifestyle diseases, promote mental, physical, and reproductive health, and prolong youthful healthy life,” wrote lead researchers from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Yoga helps us become more aware of our bodies, improves our postures, increases our body’s sensitivity, then allows us to feel subtle energies moving around it. As a result, we must pay attention to anything that doesn’t feel right in the body and correct it before it starts getting out of hand.
Life depends on the breath, and people underestimate how important it is. Our bodies gain more life force and energy by practicing yoga because it increases lung capacity and oxygen flows to all the cells. When we start to breathe better and become aware of what we are doing, we can begin to consume more air, which can help with digestion and reduce blood pressure.
What types of yoga poses are considered the best for longevity?
Most forms of yoga can help give you anti-aging benefits. The three following yoga postures can help you live a longer life.
Tadasana- Mountain
For this pose, you will need to stand straight and lift straight arms above your head. You are breathing deeply throughout the pose. This helps you open up your body, lungs and stretches out the muscles to help your body get ready for the next poses in your yoga session.
Uttanasana- Forward Fold
This pose gently folds your body whilst you focus on your breathing. It allows you to stretch your lower body and spine.
While strengthening the knees and thighs, this posture lengthens the hamstrings, calves, and hips. By stimulating liver and kidney function, it also activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Reduces stress and mild depression by calming the brain.
Ardha Chandrasana- Half Moon
Regularly challenging our balance will help us age gracefully. In addition to strengthening the abdomen, ankles, thighs, and spine, this posture also increases flexibility. As well as stretching hamstrings and calves, it improves coordination and stretches shoulders and chest. When in a balance pose such as this, your brain lightens up like fireworks, making you more mentally alert and attentive.
Takeaways
Even though yoga doesn’t offer a one-day policy benefit, you need to be patient, and yes, yoga also teaches patience. When you practice yoga at least three times a week, you will be able to experience those anti-aging benefits. It will not only become apparent to you but also to others.
Yoga truly helps transform people’s lives for the better, and professionals say that they see this on a regular basis. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all Yoga practice; yoga is a whole way of life. Stress, balance, and anti-aging are all benefits of yoga. You need to find a yoga practice that works for you.
You’ll never look back once you’ve tried it, especially when it comes to the benefits of anti-aging.