Bodytone

Yoga is a way of life, a best way to balance body, mind and spirit. Yoga is thousands of years old way of healthy living. It has been practiced in India and other areas of the Middle East and southern Asia since the start of recorded history. Yoga is also a way of achieving optimal health with little or no pharmaceutical intervention.

For those people, who live yoga, its practice consists of three main elements - the asanas, mind or meditation, and the diet. The asanas in yoga are the gentle postures or exercises that are done once a day. These postures vary from simple body stretching movements to the complex routines of combined movements.

“Soorya Namaskar” (the salutation to the sun), it stretches, tones and firms every muscle in the body. The sun exercise consists of twelve individual poses that are combined into one routine. Remember that you should not strain in the yoga exercise. Yoga is not an exercise where you ‘feel the burn’. You should only go as far as comfortable in each posture, allowing the body to relax as you hold the pose.

The mind or meditation – Most yoga routines start and end with the meditation. The calming of mind before doing the asanas allows you to focus on the postures and the body and not on the outside concerns. In the meditation, you need to close the eyes and allow your mind to go blank. There are many practitioners who follow guided meditations where they are led to quietly relax and let go.

The diet – Most of the yoga practitioners are vegetarians. Yoga involves a gentle way of life and dislikes the consumption of meat as an obstacle. Vegetarian diet is really a healthy diet. It is based on the grains, fruits and vegetables and the diet provides all the nutrients required for a healthy lifestyle. Yoga is not a religion, it a way to live healthy and happy life.