Yoga — A Holistic Path Towards a Better Living

Wishing everyone “Very Happy International Yoga Day” — Jun 21!!!! Hope that you all are keeping a good physical and emotional health — particularly important during the current situation of pandemic.

I would like to share my experience and understanding of Yoga, and how it is helping me. In addition to daily house chores that every woman is required to do, I also take up multiple physical activities. Among all forms of exercises and physical activities, yoga is something that has a special place in my life. I make it a point to practice yoga at least three times in a week — every session of at least 45 minutes. I would call Yoga as the most powerful system for overall health and well-being. Let me share why it is so.

The fundamental of yogic wisdom is in the connection between body, mind and breath. As you can see in this picture how they are connected, and hence a change in state of one affects other two. This connection is more pronounced when it comes to emotions and mental state.

Let’s understand this in layman’s words. When we feel scared or get excited, our heart beats faster and we start breathing faster from the upper part of our lungs. When someone feels frustrated, he clenches the jaw and the breath gets disturbed. These are example of the state of mind influencing the body and the breath.

The actions as simple as getting a smile on your face, changing your posture, relaxing your face, have dramatic and instant effects on your brain activity and breathing pattern. Subsequently, this influences your stress, mood and thoughts. These are example of the body posture influencing the mind and the breath. This is the fundamental principal of Yogasana. For example, yoga poses that incorporate back bends and opening of the chest do a particularly good job at increasing positive emotions — and have been suggested for depression. Similarly, yoga forward bending yoga poses change the breathing pattern so as to relax your mind and calm down any anxiety.

Similarly, the breath influences your state of mind and also the body. If your breath very fast, you feel hyperactive and you feel muscle contraction. And when you take deep breath it relaxes your mind and muscles are relaxed — as simple as that. The link between breath and mind is the fundamental of Pranayama. Through controlled breathing in Pranayama practice you can quieten the mind.

Also, all these connections work bi-directional. And hence keeping a good balanced state of one ensures a stable state of another.

I would like to share some key points on why Yoga practice works across physical, physiological, psychological and emotional level:

· Physical-level — Practice of Yogasana increases flexibility of muscles and increases the range of movement in different parts of joints. Because Yoga poses works across different muscle groups — when one muscle group is contracted the complementary muscle group (antagonist) is relaxed. While other forms of exercise like weight-lifting are not that balanced, and hence they make few muscle groups strong while others stay weak. The practice also improves lung functions as different Yoga poses work on different parts and muscle groups of respiratory system. A balanced practice of Yogasana leads to oxygenation of different parts of the body.

· Physiological-level — Yoga practice is known to lower the resting heart rate. It keeps a good balance in the autonomic nervous system that governs the proper functioning of body and mind. It improves brain functioning and keeps the good balance of brain chemicals (neurotransmitters and hormones).

· Psychological-level: Variety of studies in modern science has shown that Yoga improves a number of measures of psychological health — including mood, self-esteem and reduction in anger.

· Emotional-level: Our emotions are driven by the neurotransmitters generated in the brain. This is dictated by the state of mind which is indirectly controlled by the state of autonomic nervous system. Instability in autonomic nervous system can drive you towards anxiety, fear and stress on one extreme to depression, dullness on the other extreme. A balanced practice of Yoga helps you keep the state of nervous system, and hence the state of the mind, in a good balance.

Yoga is more about practice than theory. More you practice under the guidance of a qualified Yoga teacher, more you learn about your body and mind. You start to understand any discomfort in body and mind, that helps you correct them before those eventually turn into a disease. I feel privileged to have been practicing Yoga under highly-experienced teachers of world-renowned Yoga institute Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) of Pune founded by B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the most influential Yoga teachers in the world.