What is yoga?

Introduction

The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word Yuj, meaning to
“yoke,” “join,” or “unite.” The word implies joining or integrating all aspects of
the body with the mind to achieve a healthy and balanced life. The true purpose of
the ancient practices of yoga is to bring a proper balance between the physical
and mental aspects of a person and to awaken the subtle energies of the body. Yoga
cultivates muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility and enhances the
practitioner’s mental acuity and mindfulness. Meditative breathing calms a
person’s nerves and sharpens a person’s focus. With regular yoga practice,
individuals are known to gain physical health, mental relaxation, and inner
tranquillity.

Yoga has been practiced in India, in one form or another, since the sixth or fifth
centuries BCE. More than two thousand years ago, the Indian scholar Patanjali
codified the various yoga practices into a written collection called the
Yoga Sutras. According to Patanjali, there are three critical
components of yoga: physical postures (asanas), breath control
(pranayama), and meditation. The main purpose of
asanas and pranayam is to cleanse the body,
unlock energy paths, and raise the level of consciousness. Yoga styles have come
to include a strong component of meditation to enhance the union of mind, body,
and soul. Patanjali showed how, through the practice of yoga, one can gain mastery
over mind and emotion. Advanced yoga practitioners are known to have incredible
control over several autonomic functions such as respiration,
heart rate, and blood flow. Many of the bodily functions previously thought to be
involuntary can be controlled in a relaxed state achieved through the regular
practice of yoga. For these reasons, yoga has been shown to be beneficial in the
management of both the psychological responses to and the
physiological
effects of stress.

Yoga asanas offer a simple yet profound technique for promoting
muscle flexibility and deep relaxation. Practicing a variety of
asanas, in combination with pranayam, is
believed to clear the nervous system, causing energy to flow without obstruction
and ensuring its even distribution through the body during
pranayam. Advanced practitioners of yoga claim to experience a
pure state of joy while practicing the various yoga asanas. Yoga
asanas are designed to switch from one posture to another.
Holding the most intense asanas builds strength and endurance,
while flexing postures are known to provide muscles with a greater range of motion
in the hip and shoulder joints.

There are many forms and schools of yoga. The form most commonly practiced in
Western countries is hatha yoga, which includes Bikram,
Iyengar, and Kundalini yoga. It places special emphasis on physical postures,
which are integrated with breath control and meditation. Hatha yoga thus
emphasizes a balance of mind, body, and spirit.

Health Benefits

Research suggests a wide variety of positive health effects from the daily
practice of yoga, including, but not limited to, pain reduction, lowered heart
rate and blood pressure, improved strength and flexibility, improved sleep
quality, increased blood flow, improved immune system function, and reduced
stress. Yoga may also help to control the effects and progression of
stress-related
diseases. Yoga is a low-impact exercise that is safe for most
people to practice under the guidance of a well-trained instructor; the rate of
injury from yoga is low, although nerve damage is a rare possible side effect of
yoga practice if proper form is not maintained or if asanas are
held for an excessive amount of time. Contraindications for yoga include
pregnancy, glaucoma, sciatica, and high blood pressure; individuals with these
conditions should speak with a qualified instructor about modifying or avoiding
certain yoga poses.

Numerous organizations have engaged in a vast variety of research on the health
benefits of yoga, including the use of yoga to treat anxiety and
depression; the effects of yoga on reducing pain and
pain-associated disability from a number of conditions; the effectiveness of yoga
in the treatment of insomnia; and the effect of yoga
practice on reducing pregnancy complications.

One difficulty with some studies of yoga, however, has been a lack of rigor in
research design and protocol. For example, the yoga practices are traditionally
combined with chanting, discourse, and other activities, and it is difficult to
determine the effects of such extra variables when comparing the results of one
study with another. For example, yoga has been found to reduce asthma
exacerbations and asthma medication use, but it may not be more effective than
general breathing exercises.

Perspective and Prospects

With growing interest in alternative therapies, several individuals and
institutions have initiated extensive studies on the effects of yoga. For example,
researchers at Ball State University found that fifteen weeks of yoga training
brought a 10 percent improvement in lung capacity. Yoga has been found to help
prevent cardiovascular disease when used in conjunction with other lifestyle
changes, such as a low-fat diet, as regular practice can effect reductions in
diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)
cholesterol levels. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is supporting
research on yoga, including its use for treating insomnia and chronic lower back
pain.

In a study at the University of Iowa, some patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
were shown to benefit from yoga. Yoga prevailed among numerous conventional and
alternative therapies as an effective fatigue fighter. At the end of the two-year
study, yoga was the only therapy linked to a statistically significant positive
outcome by linear regression analysis.

Marian Garfinkel, a yoga teacher turned researcher, has demonstrated that
practicing certain yoga postures can relieve the symptoms of carpal tunnel
syndrome, the common ailment resulting from repetitive hand activities such as
typing. Patients practicing prescribed yoga postures showed significant
improvement in grip strength and suffered less pain. There was also improvement on
a nerve test used to measure the severity of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Because each patient is unique, with different abilities and weaknesses, a yoga
approach should be tailored to specific problems as well as specific potentials.
It is also important to look at the studies in which yoga did not prove effective
to determine which variables led to these failures.

Bibliography

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Hatha Yoga: Developing the Body, Mind, and Inner Self.
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Cramer, Holger, et al. "Yoga for Depression:
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Cramer, Holger, et al. "Yoga for Asthma: A
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Garfinkel, M. S., et
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Light on Yoga. Rev. ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
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Fundamentals of Yoga: A Handbook of Theory, Practice, and
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