If you are looking for a new hobby and are perhaps interested in Yoga, then please read on! There are many benefits of taking up yoga. Yoga is a process that involves releasing blocked tension and energy in the body, and helping make the muscles, tendons, joints, ligaments, and all other components work to their utmost potential.

Yoga believes that human beings are optimally designed, by nature, to be flexible and agile; and stiffness and lack of mobility only arrive when the body is unhealthy or out of alignment.

Therefore, countless people have found themselves in a yoga class, or on a yoga mat at home in front of a Yoga video or DVD, in the hopes of improving their physical health; and perhaps you may be one of them. If that’s the case, then keep reading!

There are proven physical benefits of yoga, which include:

• increased flexibility and range of motion

• reduced pain in joints and muscles

• stronger immune system

• stronger lung capacity and therefore higher quality respiration
• increased metabolism (which can lead to weight loss!)
• higher quality of sleep (especially due to improved breathing and a more oxygenated body)

Given that certain yoga practices require postures to be mastered, yoga has always helped promote the body’s flexibility; it also helps in lubricating the joints, ligaments

and tendons. Yoga detoxifies by increasing the flow of blood to various parts of the body. It helps tone and invigorate muscles that have grown flaccid and weak.

Yoga also delivers an array of psychological benefits; and in fact, this is a very common reason why people begin practicing it in the first place. Perhaps the most frequently mentioned psychological benefit of yoga is an improved ability to manage stress. Yoga diminishes an individual’s levels of anxiety, depression, and lethargy; thus enabling him/her to focus on what’s spiritual and important: achieving balance and happiness.

Pain management is another benefit of yoga. Since pain and chronic pain are conditions that affect all of us at some point, understanding the positive link between yoga and pain management could be invaluable.

Thanks to its diversity and different facets and types, yoga has spread very swiftly through the western world over last 110 years or so; and is spreading faster now than ever before (many western companies will now pay for yoga classes as part of an enhanced health benefits program).

Yogic scholars Feuerstein and Bodian note seven major types of yoga. In no particular order, they are:

• hatha yoga

• raja yoga

• karma yoga

• bhakti yoga

• jnana yoga

• tantra yoga

The chances therefore are, if you’re on the verge of starting a yoga program (perhaps at a local center or you’ve purchased a video or DVD and want to try it at home), you’re excited, optimistic, and anxious to get going!

Yet it’s wise to note that, before going into yoga practice, you should ask yourself some important questions. These questions don’t have a right or wrong answer.

They are merely meant to stimulate your own thoughts and give you the mindset that you need in order to succeed as a student of yoga for the long term.

Here are the basic questions that you should ask before starting any yoga program:

• what are my reasons for starting a yoga program? Are they realistic?

• If my yoga program involves some degree of physical strain, such as certain postures in hatha yoga, have I received medical clearance from a qualified and certified health professional to ensure that I don’t injure myself?

• Are my goals for pursuing a yoga program (or programs) clear and positive? Do I know what I want to achieve?
  

• Am I prepared to commit the time necessary to really get the most of out of my yoga experience?

• Are there people around me who might negatively try and talk me out (or mock me out) of pursuing this path of personal development? Should I either avoid such people, or ask them to respect what I’m choosing to do?

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