5 health and wellbeing benefits of Yoga

Did you know Yoga originated over 5000 years ago in India?  

The practice was originally designed as a path to spiritual enlightenment, but in modern times, the physical aspects of yoga have found huge popularity as a gentle form of exercise and stress management.   

These days, yoga is very popular with as many as 1 in 10 people practising. 

There are so many different styles of yoga and different teachers, if you didn't like your first or most recent class/style, try another style or teacher, maybe the teacher wasn't right for you, there will be a perfect fit for you if you allow yourself to try a few.  

Buddy Up Forster Chapter Leader and Yoga Teacher, Shane Dimech, says about yoga - “Yoga is about the flexibility in your mind, not your body. We work on calming our mind and the postures we are making with our bodies are just to distract the mind.”  

A Buddy Up yoga class

From developing strength and flexibility to improving your mood and calming your mind, yoga has a number of health and wellbeing benefits:  

1. Improve your mental wellbeing: 

Yoga promotes mindfulness and breathing techniques to help improve your mood, make you feel relaxed and stay focused. Mindfulness can improve your concentration. It allows you to disengage with your thoughts and stay present.  

Yoga can help improve mental health as research has found; when yoga was used as an intervention for mental health, overall measures of depression went down by 36%, anxiety went down by 26%, psychological distress went down by 33%; resilience increased by 10%, and overall mental health improved by 19%.

2. Gain more energy: 

Modern life can be stressful – whether it be work, children or any of the other demands of life that drain our energy. 

Yoga is your answer! It doesn’t have to be a full class - finding only 10 - 15 minutes daily to practice yoga can be rejuvenating. A morning session helps to prepare you for the challenges of your everyday life. 

Yoga is a perfect way to recharge your batteries, leaving you feeling energised and relaxed. 

3. Improve your posture, strength and joint pain: 

By practicing yoga regularly, your body's posture improves and this may help prevent lower back pain and muscle aches. It can also enable you to have better muscle control, which can prevent injuries including falls. Yoga practice can also strengthen your core, which improves posture and prevents injuries. 

4. Injury recovery: 

Yoga is a form of exercise that emphasises correct posture and alignment of the body; and as such, it helps to correct muscle weakness after injuries. The yoga class teacher is able to modify the moves to best suit your injuries and abilities, so inform your yoga teacher if you are recovering from any injuries. 

5. Meet new people: 

Yoga can be both a philosophy and your favourite exercise routine - but it’s also a great way to meet new people! Yoga classes are full of enthusiastic, positive and friendly people - all who have a common interest in yoga and encourage you to get the most from it. 

Join Buddy Up to participate in our yoga classes: 

Buddy Up run yoga classes regularly in our Chapters located across the country. Keep an eye out on our on our Facebook page and Chapter groups for class details. 

Join as a Buddy Up member here