I often hear people say "I can’t do yoga as I not flexible enough" and my answer is always the same “you don’t have to be flexible to practice yoga.” However, if you start practising yoga you will almost certainly notice early benefits such increased flexibility, or better breathing. The more you practice, the deeper it goes and you may experience the many layers of benefits and possibilities, so let’s explore…
As mentioned above, improved flexibility is probably one of the most immediate impacts of practising yoga, but there are several more you may notice quite quickly:
Early benefits:
· Reduction in stress levels
· Increase in flexibility
· Improved breathing
· Increased lung capacity
· Increased feeling of wellbeing
· Improved sense of balance
· Helping to manage and mend injuries
Forrest Yoga, which I teach and practise, is a very powerful healing form of yoga. For most of us, when we get injured, we think about resting the pulled “this” or the tweaked “that”. However yoga can, when practised safely, be instrumental in helping to heal the body and more importantly in protecting the body from future injuries. You have to work out what you can do from the pose, not what you can't!
People keep going back to a class (not just yoga) because it makes them feel better. However, yoga is very different to other forms of exercise. Part of this is simply down to the breathing. Breath control creates subtle changes in the nervous system, calming it down and reducing the production of the chemicals which make us feel more stressed. Yoga provides a method of reducing stress and anxiety.
With more practice:
· Keeping joints healthy
· Increase in muscle tone
· Lowering blood pressure
· Becoming less prone to injury
· Reduction in chronic neck and back pain
· Improved sleep (particularly from certain types of yoga practice)
· Improved posture
· Releasing and processing stress and trauma
Practising in a wonderful location helps to reduce stress!
When I started practising Yoga regularly, I was working as a consultant in London, travelling up and down every day on the train. Historically, I had always worked in a stressful environment. After starting yoga, I noticed a big difference, situations which should have been stressful, suddenly and unexpectedly seemed easier. There was a new clarity of mind. I found it was easier to make decisions. Better decisions. It gave me a much more of a ‘can do’ attitude to solving tricky problems.
Some people may experience a more dramatic reaction to stress in classes, where emotions can bubble up to the surface. This is quite normal! As humans have evolved, the stress drivers have changed, from worrying about an attack from wild animals (which was certainly stressful for our ancestors) to now managing the onslaught from the overload of data – such as too many emails or reactions to social media or stress from financial worries, the list goes on….
What has remained constant is that humans don’t process trauma or stress very well – instead we store it up in our bodies. We usually store unprocessed stress in our hips and shoulders, although early age trauma can show up in other muscle groups.
Yoga can have an almost immediate reaction for some people when their stored stress emerges to the surface. This is one of the most amazing benefits of yoga – it helps us to process stored stress and trauma. It can bring a huge release. It isn’t good to store stress long term and therefore finding ways to release and process are really important. Longer classes and workshops are fantastic to access deeper levels and allow stress to emerge and allow some release.
The other longer-term benefits such as protection from injury and muscle tone development take time, but just occur naturally the longer you practise. Likewise, an improvement in balance.
What you can be sure of is that practising yoga regularly will make a big difference to your body and mind. It may show itself in different ways, but the magic of yoga will always deliver the results.
I would love to hear how yoga has impacted you – have you noticed these or other benefits? Do let me know.