Just 15 minutes of yoga practice a day can alter your brain chemistry and boost your mood.
For centuries, yoga has been renowned for its myriad health benefits, and numerous studies have demonstrated its positive impact on human well-being. Yoga practice has been shown to reduce the secretion of cortisol, the primary stress hormone, and improve overall mental health. Therefore, incorporating yoga into your daily routine is an excellent way to enhance your overall health.
Fortunately, you can easily squeeze in just 15 minutes of yoga practice into your daily routine, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. With this simple practice, you can begin to reap the benefits of increased physical and mental well-being.
Just a few minutes of yoga practice every day will provide that much-needed energy boost in our busy lives and will keep us fresh for longer. Yoga, with its unique cooperation of body and breath work, is perfect when your reserves are running low. Asanas (yoga poses) stimulate different areas of the body, including the endocrine and nervous systems, while pranayama (breathing practices) helps to oxygenate the blood and calm the mind. So, instead of grabbing another cup of coffee, do some yoga.
Daily yoga practice will awaken the major energy centers (called chakras) in your body. Great poses for extra energy are those that stretch the spine, like Tree Pose, allowing energy to circulate throughout the body, and poses that open the chest, like Cobra Pose, which encourages the intake of more breath.
Many workplaces now offer yoga sessions during lunch breaks because yoga has been shown to be an amazing stress reliever. Any yoga practice, even a short daily one, should consist of three elements: Posture, Breathing, and Meditation.
Studies have shown that people who regularly practice all three elements are better able to regulate their heart rate variability (HRV). This means that their heart rate is lower, which allows the body to respond more flexibly to stress.
Daily yoga practice helps you stretch and tone your body, which in turn helps you achieve stronger muscles throughout your entire body. Popular poses like the plank work on strengthening your arms, legs, shoulders, and abs. You don’t have to be super flexible to practice yoga, the beauty of yoga is that it can be practiced at all levels of ability.
A few minutes a day practicing poses like the warrior or the downward-facing dog will soon make you really feel the difference in your flexibility, whether you’re pretty bendy already or not.
You don’t have to practice Hot Yoga or be able to bend double in a yoga pose to lose weight. An everyday gentle yoga practice will fuel the metabolic system and will help burn fat, leading to weight loss. Daily yoga can also help restore the hormonal balance in your body, which can normalize your body weight by reducing water retention and improving digestion and metabolism.
Levels of cortisol, the hormone that is released in response to stress and low blood-glucose concentration, will be lowered, leading to less overeating. Daily yoga also strengthens the overall mind-body connection and helps you deal more effectively with unpleasant emotions rather than reaching for food to suppress those feelings.
As you now know, everyday yoga will help you increase your level of fitness, regulate your heart rate, reduce your stress levels, and make you a happier person. All those elements may add valuable years to your life.
It’s also known that yoga decreases the risk of heart disease, and it reduces the pace of your breathing which has been linked to a longer lifespan. Recent studies have shown that the meditation element of yoga might help delay the process of aging by protecting the telomeres (caps) at the end of our chromosomes, too.
