Yoga: Experience the Benefits of Being Calm & Focused - Essay Sample

Introduction

My experience in class has made me imagine that Yoga is beneficial in that it makes people stay calm and focused. Those who have learned yoga have an experience that keeps their mind focused on one thing for a while. However, it requires effort from those who need it; hatha yoga is a sanctuary for people who are suffering from certain types of pain. The analogy behind the science of hatha yoga is keeping the top-secret to achieve success. As taught by yoga gurus, the practice of yoga helps to relieve all types of anxieties. It is a tool, which helps humans evolve in their conscious being; it stimulates deep awareness in every cell. People become aware of their body, emotions, senses, energy, mind, and awareness of themselves. The paper will discuss in detail and demonstrate the hatha yoga experience that we learned in class.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Reasons to Practice Yoga

Hatha yoga experience has been helpful and beneficial to me as I move through other areas of my life. I have acquired new perspectives necessary to view the importance of practicing the exercise. I have a detached witness that can help me to respond to situations rather than react to them "flight or fight" (Medina et al. n.p). Hatha yoga from its texts is a goal-oriented activity, which gives people freedom from human birth to cosmic consciousness asana, which means a seated position (Bhavanani and Bhavanani 3) With yoga asana, one can use every muscle in his/her body to increase strength while also relieving muscular tension. Hatha yoga improves flexibility in that it makes an individual aware of correct muscles that should be used to relieve stress and anxiety. As an individual acquires experience, he/she lengthens the ligaments, tendons, and muscles hence increasing elasticity (Medina et al. n.p). At the same time, I learned that people who practice yoga are most likely to be stress-free. Yoga reduces the effects of stress both on the body and mind. It helps to lower the heart rate, blood pressure, support the immune system, and also improves digestion. For example, asana meditation and breath practice help to reduce the level of the stress hormone cortisol and at the same time encourages true relaxation. Hatha yoga exercises ease symptoms of fatigue, depression, anxiety, asthma, and more.

Hatha yoga aids body muscle alignment and this helps a person to become aware of leading to a better posture, which helps to set correct breathing habits. Moreover, yoga improves the circulation of blood in the body. It aids in the distribution of oxygenated blood in every cell of the body; it improves oxygen uptake, particularly when people are exercising. Also, hatha yoga has been linked to cardiovascular and endurance benefits. Like gym activities, yoga also lowers the resting heart rate and improves blood circulation in the body. The other reason to practice yoga is its benefit in concentration. Research shows that people who practice yoga have a sharp memory and also increased the depth and duration of concentration (Bhavanani and Bhavanani 4). They tend to be happy, which comes from the higher self and not the outer circumstances. This is an important activity, which helps to calm the body and mind hence attracting positive thoughts and compassionate actions. Hatha yoga connects the body, mind, and spirit in that people become aware of the underlying connecting energy, which helps to move away from ineffective and negative habits into effective and positive affirmations.

Daily Yoga: Alignment, Breath, Relaxation, and Beginning Asana

Yoga is a healing art that helps to relieve anxiety and stress. However, it requires proper alignment for maximum benefit. Alignment is a precise method in which the body should be positioned from pose to avoid injury (Medina et al. n.p). For example, cat-cow stretch helps the participant have shoulders over the twists and the knees over the ankles and this allows energy flow within the body. Another first asana stretch is the warm-up, which allows the participant to have handed over the ankles. Alignment is a significant experience because it helps to improve awareness leading to better posture and breathing habits. Mastery of alignment styles reduces muscular and joint pain hence resulting in greater natural balance and proprioception (Lau et al. n.p). Some of the alignment principles are universal and they can be easily adapted depending on the yoga style. For instance, leg extension, rotating single-leg, cobra, foreword alignment, open heart, greetings, and more help the participants to experience joy and freedom. Depending on the alignment principle, there are different results in that everyone knows what he/she wants to accomplish. Perfect suit depends on the person who is doing the pose; an alignment is simply a tool that is used to bring particular results.

Yoga also helps participants to understand breath habits; people can breathe more slowly or deeply given that they are more aware of the impact. Mastery of breathing patterns helps to improve lung function and also augment the distribution of oxygen in various parts cells in the body. In turn, they increase relaxation response and diminish stress response. While practicing sun posture variations and asana styles, every moment is integrated with the breath. The experience motivates and inspires participants because makes them enjoy inhalation of oxygen. The participants experience calmness on inhalation, something that brings stability in that movement flows with complete breath. Participants feel present, balanced, and alive while participating in various yoga exercises. The other daily yoga technique is relaxation; this requires participants to modify postures for the body. Instructions and yoga pictures are key in this approach because they guide an individual on the direction to lean toward and also experiments help the participants to explore different positions of posture and alignment for the body. Relaxation is acquired when the participant combines the practice of physical poses, meditation, and controlled breathing. When it is achieved, it helps reduce stress, lower heart rate, and reduce blood pressure. There are basic asanas, which I found interesting, however, being a beginner is not that easy. Yoga is pushing hands and other body parts past the normal limits, for example, mountain pose teaches one to stand steadily and it involves major muscles that improve concentration. The other is the cobra pose, which requires one to lie on the stomach with the fit together. It helps strengthen the lower back muscles and also cushions the spine, triceps, and opens the chest hence promoting inhalation.

Yoga History/Balanced Routine and Order of Movement/Meditation

Yoga has been in existence from the ancient era. From the Vedic period in 1500 BCE, it was presented in written texts, which were taught by teachers (gurus) (Sovik and Bhavanani 17). The teaching brought harmonious relationships with nature, petition for health, appeal for peace, and awareness of meditation dimensions. Yoga is likened as both a process and a goal, which was used for teaching people how to acquire freedom from human suffering. It was considered as the process of restoring harmony with the complex parts of the body and mind. It reunited people's spirit and essential nature. The training sprang from ancient India and it was referred to as the eternal way through which the Indian people figured out the existing practices to convey essential ideas of yoga theory (Sovik and Bhavanani 18). They presented yoga in the form of eight limbs; the first one was external because it focused on the relationship between the world and the body. The other was internal, which was termed as mental. This requires the combination of three limbs and it was conducted in refined stages that involved concentration.

Yoga is presented by nature balancing of the body and internal treads. Therefore, it requires a balanced routine and order of movement because yoga itself is about aligning oneself with the inner sense of self. Participant's gain multiple experiences when the body, breathe, and mind is directly involved in the exercise. The body and mind are given thorough attention and this gradually frees oneself for deeper concentration and reflection. The combination of various styles of alignment results in improved health, self-discovery, and spiritual understanding (Lau et al. n.p). Balance and order of movement focus on the body because it is the only physical sheath in existence.

At the same time, the body is the visible aspect of personality thus when the instinctive drives are trained, they develop a certain pattern, which functions as an important yogic lifestyle. Asanas pose such as fish, butterfly, boat-open, relaxed spine, bridge, pyramid prep, pigeon-A, and more assist to maintain physical wellbeing and health. The asana positions also help to detoxify the body; they serve as a powerful synthesis for activation, regeneration, and purification of the body and mind. The most profound aspect of yoga is meditation because it is responsible for witnessing what happens in the mind. With meditation, aspects such as memories, emotions, sensations, and states of consciousness form an object of attention. Gradually, the concentration reveals to the mind the consciousness rests within oneself.

Foundations and Functions of Yoga

In the fourth week, I acquired knowledge that when most people practice yoga they focus on asana (posture) to achieve effective results. The practice of yoga is easy in that it requires elf-observation and refinement of postures. When one understands all the asanas, it becomes easy to develop a sense of psychological distance from the body. Perception is always developed that there needs to be a distance between the body and the alignment parts such as arms, hands, ankles, and many more (Sovik and Bhavanani 19). For instance, seated alignment can help to lend muscle power and reduce stress. The activity aligns the distinct parts of the body with inner experience and in turn results in a deeper sense of self-awareness and self-mastery of one's body. A similar thing becomes the center of interest when engaging in sun postures variations such as the plank, open lunge, pigeon, to mention but a few. Every activity is focused on the breath, something that helps to achieve emotions as well as heightening awareness. Breath awareness is responsible for inhalation and exhalation, which provides a pleasant feeling to nourishment, attention, and development of relaxed breathing.

According to proponents of yoga theory, yoga has numerous functions (Sovik and Bhavanani 23). To begin with, yoga helps to maximize physical and emotional potential, reduces stress and anxiety, and enhances spiritual awakening and awareness. However, if yoga is not practiced well, it can cause injuries or energy depletion. Stretching is the key component in the practice of yoga with the benefits of the muscle and skeletal system. The stretching extends the normal limit and it is done in a posture that does not require exertion of much pressure; it is practiced in a comfortable environment. Participants focus on achieving a relaxed, and calm state, which can allow them to engage in different positions. An example is the forward fold, which requires that participants open their hips as they stretch the hamstrings and adductors. When they stretch, their needs must be bent in a way that allows the muscles to move.

Another method is child stretch; this posture requires the participant to stretch the latissimus (Lau et al. n.p). One should start by stretching the hands and knees and then bring back the hips until the forehead touches the floor. The postures are not easy but in most circumstances, difficulties come on the way to strengthen and test one's patienc...