How Hatha Yoga Helps In Improving Mental & Physical Health
Yoga, as a practice, is an ancient disciplinary practice that aims towards keeping one’s mind and body young. It involves intensive breathing techniques paired with various physical poses that are adept at strengthening your body. With the ever-increasing popularity of yogic practices worldwide, we are well versed with a few types of yoga-like power yoga, ashtanga yoga, restorative yoga, etc. However, yoga is a broad field that involves many different types of practices that benefit you. One such essential part of yoga is hatha yoga.
Etymologically, Hatha is a Sanskrit word that means “force”, and hatha yoga refers to several different physical techniques. It is a type of strength training that requires the involvement of all your body muscles but without any interference from your other senses. It focuses on bringing your higher consciousness to life in an attempt to heighten your awareness about oneself as well as your surroundings. Here are some of the main ways hatha yoga can help you improve your physical and mental health:
- Increases Core Strength: Hatha yoga involves many poses that ultimately stimulate all your abdominal muscles and engage core strength. With regular practice, this stimulation leads to an increase in core strength.
- Improves Balance & Flexibility: Yoga asanas are all about balancing and moulding your body into different poses. As a beginner, you can start with easy asanas and slowly build up your flexibility as they loosen up and stretch out your muscles to help increase mobility.
- Reduces Stress Levels: Hatha yoga has been observed to control stress hormones in the body like cortisol. It also increases the production of anti-stress hormones like serotonin and dopamine, so it is a highly effective stress buster.
- Enhances Sleep Patterns: Since a disrupted state of mind and high-stress levels are the main reasons for unhealthy sleeping patterns, hatha yoga can improve one’s sleeping patterns. It helps your mind calm down and slip into a peaceful state, helping you fall asleep quicker and better.
- Strengthens Immune System: Hatha yoga plays the essential role of increasing lymph and oxygen levels in your body, which leads to a better supply of nutrients and blood to all your organs. This strengthens your immune system, betters heart and lung function and helps combat diseases.
- Keeps Joints Healthy: Joint pain is a common issue among all age groups, but hatha yoga takes care of increased mobility, better blood circulation and improved bone health. It strengthens your joints and keeps them as good as new.
- Betters Intrapersonal Connection: Increased mindfulness is a primary benefit of hatha yoga and that combined with the physical benefits, it gives your self-confidence a significant boost. It puts you in better touch with your mind and body.
With regular practice of hatha yoga asanas, you can get in on all of the benefits mentioned above. Learn how to master various poses from cult.fit’s hatha yoga pack guided by experts, and push yourself towards living a much healthier lifestyle.