Can yoga bring you happiness?
You bet it can and there is scientific evidence to prove it!
Everyone knows that the power of our breath is amazing—it can drive us on, power us to move or can slow our heart rate and calm us.
Yoga harnesses the use of breath and maximizes the benefits of regulating the breath, forcing us to slow the breath and to bring our focus internally.
Multiple studies have proven the scientific power of breathing and the benefits of moving.
Not only does moving increase endorphins and make you feel plain exhilarated and good---there is evidence that it actually increases your happiness significantly.
In addition to increasing happiness, the regular practice of yoga has been proven beneficial to your heart and according to the American Heart Association movement and regular exercise, especially yoga, and can decrease the likelihood of stroke and heart attack.
A consistent yoga practice helps to keep joints lubricated, increasing our mobility and flexibility and may help to lessen the effects of chronic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteo-arthritis and diabetes.
Yoga has been found to have all these physical benefits as well as the added benefit of calming the mind and enabling us to deal more effectively with the challenges of daily life, even those that have been forced upon us by the pandemic of 2020.
Yoga was found to create happier and healthier humans, WHY YOGA IS GOOD FOR YOUR BODY & BRAIN, ACCORDING TO SCIENCE: New Research Suggests that Yoga Directly Influences Our Nervous Systems Making Us Happier and Heatlhier, by Jaylissa Zheng & Dacher Keltner, 8/24/2020. In a recent study by the National Institutes of Health, yoga was found to shift brain chemistry and actually result in less decline in the brain's cortex and the areas in the brain responsible for the positive mental states including joy and happiness.
The regular practice of yoga has also been found to increase activity in the areas of the brain associated with our ability to empathize, cultivate gratitude and to be kind to others.
This research suggests that yoga directly influences our nervous systems making us significantly happier and healthier! Now those of us who have been practicing for many years may have always suspected or known that this was true, but having objective scientific proof is extremely gratifying and validating.
So what’s stopping you????
September is National Yoga Awareness month—established in 2009 to increase awareness and to educate the general public about the benefits of yoga.
This month we celebrate our ability to move and to BREATHE and to PRACTICE together!
See you in the studio (or the virtual studio)!