THE BENEFITS OF YOGA TRAINING

 

A few months ago I encountered a 60-something year old Indian psychotherapist on a flight from Mumbai. This elderly man was impressively vibrant and flexible for his age. In fact, he was capable of performing a full split and he displayed this ability, attributing his extraordinary flexibility to a strict regime of Yoga training.

 

 

Yoga teaches us how to adopt a new lifestyle, which is the key to permanent change. It offers the practitioner what few other physical exercises can: a potent combination of ancient science and self-mastery, tools that facilitate the self-reflection required to discover why one gained weight in the first place, and the ability to literally (as they say in yoga-speak) "let it go."

Where yoga really shines is when it stays true to its origins, as a science that fosters the union of all aspects of being, rallying us to discipline, helping us to slow down mentally, teaching us to distinguish between the urge to eat and the emotional impulses that sometimes drive us to eat, and helping us to discern what we are truly hungry for.

Yoga can be practised from the comfort of your home. All you need are some comfortable clothes and a yoga mat and you are good to go.  It is light on the joints and the chances of injury, if done initially under the guidance of a trained professional – are minimal.

 

 The incredible message you receive with yoga is that it's not about achieving, or losing weight—although most people do. It's about being, which is really just accepting yourself just as you are