The Effects Of Yoga On The Mind Body Spirit About A Person 's Overall Health Status

This exercise can do a lot when it comes to improving your overall physical health. A research from physicians at the HMO Group Health Cooperative in Seattle discovered that yoga can help reduce diabetes, heart disease, and even chronic pain throughout the body. In other words, yoga works on building muscles and increasing endurance.

Yoga has been shown to be effective as an adjunctive treatment for a wide variety of disorders, including epilepsy, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, and chronic pain (Streeter et al., 2012; van der Kolk, 2014). Streeter et al. (2012) propose that yoga is helpful in such a wide variety of conditions because it reduces allostatic load in the stress response symptom, decreases sympathetic nervous system activity, increases parasympathetic nervous system activity, and increases gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA) levels. Overall, yoga is a practice that may help the body return to a more optimal state of

Yoga based interventions fall under a very broad topic of complementary and alternative medicine. The United States National Library of Medicine defines CAMs as “the term for medical products and practices that are not part of standard care. Standard care is what medical doctors, doctors of osteopathy, and allied health professionals, such as nurses and physical

According to the Osteopathic.org website, yoga is proven to provide physical benefits of the human body, including increased flexibility, increased muscle strength and tone, improved respiration, energy and vitality, maintaining a balanced metabolism, weight reduction, cardio and circulatory health, improved athletic performance, and protection from injury. Not only are there physical benefits to yoga, but also mental benefits such as improving a person’s mental health and is proven to increase coping skills. Furthermore, the American Osteopathic Association states, “Regular yoga practice creates mental clarity and calmness; increases body awareness; relieves chronic stress pattern; relaxes the mind; centers

Throughout this six week session I've gained a much better understanding of yoga and how it really works. I've learned that yoga not only helps the body flexibility but also helps you throughout the day from the different techniques you learn and do on a daily basis. In fact, what I find interesting about yoga is that it's not all about physical activity but being one with yourself, as if getting to know yourself throughout these exercises. I also feel as though yoga helps release tension and negative energy from the body, while clearing the mind and making you feel like a new person after exercising. For example, every morning that I wake up there are times I don't want to get out of bed or do anything, but once I get to class it's like a heavy burden been released off of my shoulders and I begin to feel good and happy. Doing yoga puts me in a better mood.

Yoga helps a person bring their mind, body and spirit into proper balance. Doing these exercises helps to build a body that has been weakened by injury or by a lack of preparation, and it improves one's posture and breathing technique. With

Yoga is a multibillion dollar industry. It is popular in the United States and is widely recognized for its therapeutic benefits. It lowers blood pressure and provides long-term relief from stress. Yoga is the perfect antidote for many people living stressful lives. This is likely an important reason for its rising popularity.

In the United States, yoga has become a mainstream activity and is being used by increasingly more people mostly due to the physiological and psychological benefits correlated with it. Saper et al. (2004) conducted a study in order to address the prevalence of yoga in the US. They found that approximately 7.5% of adults (about 15 million) in 1998 had used yoga at least once in their lifetime and about 5% of adults reported they practiced yoga within the last year. Yoga claims to help reduce mental stress and anxiety. Correspondingly, studies have demonstrated the positive health effects of yoga in children (Butzer et al., 2015), adults (Streeter et al., 2010), and the elderly (Alexander et al., 2013),

Ross, A. and Thomas, S. (2010). The Health Benefits of Yoga and Exercise: A Review of Comparison Studies. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(1), pp.3-12.

Yoga can be defined as a non-aerobic exercise and is defined as an “ ancient Indian combination of techniques, which include physical postures, voluntarily regulated breathing, meditation, as well as certain philosophical principles” (Taimini, 1986, cited in Telles, Gaur & Balkrishna, 2009). One of the most popular forms of yoga, which is used frequently in the literature, is Hatha Yoga. Hatha yoga involves the use of breathing techniques, postures and meditation to better physical and mental wellbeing (Li & Goldsmith, 2012). It is suggested that during low exertion exercise, such as yoga, individuals are required to think about what they are doing, develop awareness of their bodies and feel their movements (Lidor, 1999). A recent study

Yoga, according to a study by, Jones, is a “4,000-year-old practice” that incorporates spirituality, breathing methods, and meditation that cultivates techniques to decrease stress factors in order to obtain a state of relaxation through emphasizes on the “body, mind and the breath” (2016). According to, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, approximately 9.5% of U.S. adults (21 million)” have incorporated the used of yoga, whose origins have been rooted in the early history of “Indian philosophy” (2015).

The ability to get a good nights rest will positively impact the nursing population. To develop a yoga practice that works for an individual will allow for relaxation, decreased stress, and an overall increased sleeping habit. Not only does yoga impact stress positively, a consistent yoga practice can lead to increased muscle tone and flexibility. This increased tone and flexibility results in decreased injury in the workplace and for the individual, decreased weight, total body fat, decreased blood pressure and an increase in overall quality of life (Alexander 2013).

Cardiovascular disease is a global burden and by changing risk factors such as increasing physical activity and reducing stress by relaxation can lower the incidence of the disease (Hartley, Dyakova, Holmes, Clarke, Lee, Ernst, & Rees, 2014) The study had 800 participants with high risk factors of the cardiovascular disease and were recruited to 11 study trials. After eight months of this ongoing study, Hartley and Colleagues (2014) found that any form of yoga showed reduction in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and an increase in high-density lipoprotein. Since patients with the cardiovascular disease are unable to perform rigorous exercises, yoga was concluded to be an ideal choice for them. Participants, who

Which brings me to present day when life’s stresses only seem to grow in stature as we “grow up” and we take on more and more in life, it begins to weigh us down. With this in mind, my own curiosity about how yoga was able to let me free myself from our over stressed world. Coupled with the staying power it has had in my life over an extended period of time has lead me to further my research on the subject of yoga. More specifically though I wanted to see how yoga can relieve stress and therefore assist in overall health and wellbeing. During many interesting readings that I have encountered in my research, I read a particular article that I chose for my source critique, The Most Important Part of a Yoga Pose, written by Jill Miller. I chose this article because Jill answers some of the original questions I had when I started yoga years ago.

Yoga's psychological benefits include; improvement of anxiety, depression, stress tolerance, addictive disorders, bi polar disorders, eating disorders, insomnia and overall emotional balance. Physical benefits include; improvement of chronic pain, reduction of heart rate and blood pressure, increased circulation, and function. The benefits continue; improvement in venous return of the