This Is What Happens When You Start Doing Yoga Everyday

There are over 36 million yoga practitioners in America.

Yoga can aid in stress reduction, lower your blood pressure, and improve your mood.

How else can you benefit from doing yoga every day?

Let’s take a look!

1. Improved Flexibility

The most obvious benefit of yoga is improved flexibility. Deep breathing helps you melt deeper into stretches, teaching you to push when discomfort ramps up. Yoga also teaches you how to distinguish between discomfort and real pain.

After doing yoga for a while, you may notice that your aches and pains are beginning to disappear. You will learn to work muscles, ligaments, and other tissue, creating a system of muscle memory.

Your body will move through every range of motion, stretching muscles and joints and allowing you to sink deeper into poses. This will make it easier for you to perform other types of cardiovascular exercise, as well as weight-lifting.

2. Reducing Stress

Yoga can reduce stress and anxiety through deep breathing, meditation, and poses. It can help you control your body and calm your mind. Meditation will make you more mindful of the present moment without judgment.

Yoga helps you control your mind and concentrate on breathing. There is nothing you can do about the past, yet many of us waste precious time fretting over it. Yoga helps you focus on the present moment in a conscious way.

3. Emotional Health

Yoga can increase your serotonin levels, making you emotionally stronger and happier. Those who have been doing yoga long-term actually have more bulk in the part of the brain associated with contentment.

Yoga can give you higher gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) levels, lowering your risk of depression and anxiety. It can also change your brain chemistry and help improve your mood. This is especially true in people who have anxiety disorders and a low GABA level.

Those who practice yoga daily report higher levels of energy, enthusiasm, and self-acceptance. They are more confident and relaxed. They are also less self-critical.

4. Improved Concentration

Folks practicing yoga are better able to focus their mental resources and process information more quickly. They can learn more accurately and are better at holding updated pieces of information.

Yoga can actually give you more control over your attention, helping you to focus more on specific tasks. It can reduce the presence of anxiety and other negative emotions that impede healthy thinking and attention.

5. Better Heart Health

Yoga can help you get more oxygen to your cells, increasing your levels of hemoglobin. This can make your platelets less sticky and decrease your risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Those who practice yoga daily are more likely to be active and practice healthy eating habits. This also helps improve your overall heart health.

Yoga can also help regulate heartbeat in those with irregular rhythms. Those who suffer from them can have a higher quality of life.

The reason for this is that the heart rate in the body is controlled by communication between the heart and brain. The breathing in yoga has a calming effect that can prevent the speeding up or slowing down that is common in those with atrial fibrillation.

6. Improved Immune System

Yoga can help you drain your lymphatic system, helping you to fight infection, get rid of cancerous cells, and dispose of toxic wastes. This helps you bring oxygenated blood to important organs for optimal functioning.

Yoga also helps to lower the stress hormones that can compromise your immune system. It conditions your lungs and respiratory tract to be stronger. You will heal wounds, injuries, and infections faster with yoga.

7. Prevents Arthritis

Yoga can help prevent arthritis by “squeezing and soaking” areas of cartilage that aren’t normally used. This is how joint cartilage receives nutrients.

Neglected areas of cartilage can eventually wear out, exposing the underlying bone. Yoga can prevent this from happening.

For those who have arthritis, yoga can build muscle strength and improve balance. It can also help reduce joint pain.

8. Prevent Osteoporosis

Yoga can actually provide enough stress to your bones to increase bone density, preventing osteoporosis. When bones get stimulated through compression or elongation, they produce more bone mass until the bone gets strong enough to resist the pressure.

For those who already have osteoporosis, start with simple practice and gradually increase your flexibility.

Yoga’s established benefits, including improved balance and coordination, protect against falling, which is a major risk for those with osteoporosis.

9. Improved Metabolism

Yoga can provide a physical activity that is critical to your body’s metabolic functioning. When your body begins to sweat, your endocrine system goes into gear. It helps to regulate many organ functions.

Increased metabolism will help with weight loss. Yoga can also improve digestion and circulation, leading to more lean muscle mass.

Yoga exercises that focus on your core help your digestive system to function properly. These include planks, boat position, or bringing your knee to your chest.

Metabolism slows down when your circulatory system isn’t functioning properly. Deep and slow breathing can improve your circulation and allow your arteries to open up and release pressure.

Yoga also targets large muscle groups. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. And the more calories you burn, the faster your metabolic system will work.

10. Improved Self-Esteem

Those with chronic low self-esteem may act out in ways that lead to even lower self-esteem. This includes overeating, substance abuse, and overwork. 

Yoga is a positive approach to self-examination and betterment. You will experience gratitude, empathy, and forgiveness, especially for yourself.

Your relationships with others will also improve as you become more other-focused. You will be given the tools to nurture yourself and avoid taking your pain out on those you love.

Yoga Every Day

Practicing yoga every day is more than just a way to become more limber. You will improve your concentration, appearance, and mental clarity in ways you did not think possible.

For more information on mindful living, read our blog today.