Yoga undoubtedly is becoming the most popular means towards healthy living these days. Yoga is helping millions of people to be in shape and advancing them towards a better and healthy lifestyle. Practicing yogic asana and pranayamas is helping people to cope with their chronic ailments and helping them fight the stress.

Revolutionary changes happened all these years, but the only thing that did not change is the nature of the ailments that have afflicted people for ages. But the only gift that these hectic work schedules have brought with them to the lives of people in modern times is stress. The number of people detected with the stress related disorders is rising like never before.

The Yogic Sciences find their origin in the Indian historic work- Patanjali Yoga. But due to mindless steps of westernization methods followed by the Indian people, they took themselves away from their roots. And we must self pity ourselves that today those people from the west are coming to India and bringing back the blessings of our rich culture back into the fashion. The saddest thing is that we have forgotten our own culture.

Yogic exercises are majorly divided into asanas and pranayamas. Asanas are the activities which involve various postures to exercise different body parts. Pranayamas mean aayam (control) of pran (breath). They are the activities to control the pace of your breath and hence normalizing the flow of blood to each and every organ of the body.

How yoga works to keep the body healthy and cure all kinds of ailments, was till now known only through the means of what was written in rich historic texts. But off lately, there are many medical researches being conducted by highly qualified medical practitioners over how the asana and pranayamas work in normalizing bodily functions and ailing even the deadliest of diseases like cancer. The results of such research works is that many doctors have started prescribing regular practice of yoga as a part of the prescription along with the medicines.

The credit of bringing about this revolutionary awareness about the benefits of yoga goes to Baba Ramdev. He is not a qualified medical practitioner, but he has influenced the masses by organizing various shivirs and camps across the country and even abroad and teaching them yoga. The testimonials by the common people who received benefits have proved the credibility of not only the Yoga but also brought fame for Baba Ramdev.

Today people have become conscious more than ever to stay fit by practicing Yoga daily and also helping others do the same. Hope this change serves as a foundation step towards the Health Revolution in India (Oops I think I must say ” WORLD).

By now you have heard a lot about the yoga and its benefits but you are still hesitating to do it because of some prejudice or misconceptions or myths, which are rumors only, having nothing common between them and reality. I hope I will be able to clear some of yours doubt through this article and helping you to realize the true power of the Indian traditional exercise called yoga

It is only For Young People -This is the very first and I can say the most untrue of all the misconceptions. Yoga is a way to keep a person’s body fit and fine. And the old age people suffer the most of the health problems. So in this way yoga should be for the old age people. The fact I have mentioned is just opposite of what is the baseline for this myth.

So the conclusion is this that everybody needs sound body and mind and thus yoga is for all, even for the pregnant ladies. Yes believe me, there are asana’s that helps the expecting ladies to deliver without any complications. Even there are cases where a lady delivers a child normally even after doctors have told about the operation during the earlier months of pregnancy. And it’s all because of the yoga that helps these ladies to just overcome these problems that to in a time of certain months.

It is only for Fit People- This myth tells the story of the power of yoga itself. Within weeks of starting yoga you can see the result of that. And who do this consistently is one of the beast looking and healthy persons. One who starts with it but was unable to carry on due to their current body postures due to lack of flexibility thinks they can’t do. But yoga is for them only. You have to realize that yoga can be done with varying degrees and the perfect posture is the matter of practicing. It’s all about your will power and effort.

It is only for Spiritual People- Yes the yoga has a spiritual aspect because the healing and refreshing power that yoga has is because it connects you to your soul. It’s the method that is the baseline of the yoga. Doctors also now give importance to spiritual healing. But this does not mean that it’s only for the spiritual people. Spirituality that underlines yoga is just one of the ways towards the better health.

In today’s scenario why do you think so many people are adopting yoga irrespective of the fact that it is aliased with the metaphysical and religious aspect? The answer is the outcome ones get after regular yoga in terms of mind and body soundness. This is form is practiced from thousands of years in the eastern countries and especially in the India where it is the most loved form of exercise to release oneself from the daily pressures of life.

So what yoga is all about? It is basically a system of techniques and disciplines that takes the practitioner to end goal of complete mind and body soundness. The system may vary because of different forms of yoga but the end result is the same.

Now that seems to be a big ask to you but even a step towards the ultimate goal starts showing you the changes in your daily life in form of better concentration, better posture, and above all better health. Yoga is the techniques which unites you with your soul.

Amongst the many forms of yoga the constant part is the postures which help you to make your body more balanced. For example when your vehicles start giving you problem, you just go to the mechanic and says service the vehicle. Similar is the case with our body. It’s also a combination of different system running in tandem, and those systems also need servicing. Yoga is the way by which you can create body awareness among yourself. And if you take care of your vehicle (body) daily, then you don’t need to go to the mechanic (doctor) or any reason. In that case even a minute change in behavior of body will be noticed by you.

Actually our body gives us messages in form of symptoms of an under lying problem, but we are so busy in ourselves that we just ignore it and move forward. Yoga is something that connects to your body, so that you can take care of it.

Asans are the postures of body that helps to relax and refresh. Many of the forms are developed from the characteristic postures of animals, reptiles, insects, etc. keep some tips in mind before doing yoga:

1. Do it after 2 or 3 hours of meal

2. Wear loose clothes

3. Empty the bladder

4. Do it on a hard plain surface

5. Opt for a place that has proper ventilation

Yoga is something that has created a lot of news in the west in the recent past. And it all started with a celebrity who gave the credit of her new astonishing looks to the yoga, when asked by a reporter. Do begin with; Yoga is the old Indian traditional art that have been exercised since many ages but lost its importance in midst because Indian wants to get westernized and just lost their roots & now it’s back in India via west. After all gold is gold either it’s in the jewelers shop or in the mud.

According to Indian literature our body is made up of panchtatwa (5 elements), and there are different parts in our body which are attached to these 5 elements. And these 5 elements or energies work in co-ordination with each other. Any health problem is because of misbalance between these elements. And there are centers of these energies in our body along with that of intelligence and others called the chakras. There are in total seven chakras which are parallel to spine.

Yoga positions (asana) are the different posture of body that helps to flush toxic out of your body and rejuvenate your body and helps you to connect to yourself (yours inner soul).

Yoga is complicated yet simple. First of all you have to energize your chakras by exercising different postures specific for a particular chakra. These are

1. Muladhara means root and the element is earth. It is located at the base of spine. You have to exercise Setu bandhasana (bridge) for this.
2. Svadhisthana means sweetness and the element is water. It is located at the areas of genitals and womb. You have to exercise Bhujangasana (cobra) for this.
3. Manipura means lustrous gem and the element is fire. It is located at the areas of navel. You have to exercise Dhanaurasana (bow) for this.
4. Anahata its function is love and the element is air. It is located in the heart. You have to exercise Ushtrasana (camel) for this.
5. Visuddha means purification and the element is sound. It is located in the area of throat. You have to exercise Matsyasana (fish) for this.
6. Ajna means to know and the element is light. It is located in the head. You have to exercise Seated yoga mudra for this.
7. Sahasrara means thousand fold and the element is thought. It is located just above the top of head. You have to exercise Meditation for this.

As health benefits of yoga are endless thus this will be yours first step towards the healthy and immortal life. Enjoy!