The Ultimate Guide to Yoga: Why, What & How of Yoga

This is the ultimate guide to Yoga where you’ll learn why, what and how to of Yoga. Yoga is an extraordinary spiritual science of self-realization and self-development that shows us all how to develop our full potential in our varied lives. Ayurveda is the traditional medicine healing system for body, mind and spirit. Yoga and Ayurveda have been linked for so long together as two complementary systems of human development.

So now as you have been introduced to yoga let’s dive deeper into this ultimate guide of yoga and it’s benefits.

Why Yoga is Beneficial, Important and Good for Healthy Living?

People always ask questions like why yoga is an important thing for a healthy life?, why yoga is beneficial/good for a healthy living? and why it is so popular? before learning or even taking a step forward to learn more about Yoga.

Yoga : What is Yoga?

Following are the answers to all your yoga questions:

  • Yoga does not causes fatigue like other workouts
  • Yoga makes you energetic after doing some yoga poses, while in other workouts you needs some energy refilling for your body.
  • Your age doesn’t matter here, you can do yoga even if you are 61 yrs old. There’s no age limit in yoga.
  • You’ll not face any severe body pain doing yoga
  • Yoga focuses on body, energy, emotions and the mind.
  • Yoga can be done anywhere in the world

Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known even existed.BKS Iyengar

I think now you have understood why yoga is good, important, beneficial and even why it is so popular? We should go ahead with what exactly yoga is?

What exactly Yoga is? It’s Definition and Meaning

Yoga (योग) is defined as an Indian physical, mental, and spiritual practice or discipline according to Wikipedia. There is a broad variety of schools, practices and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism (including Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism) and Jainism. The best-known are Hatha yoga and Raja yoga.

The word Yoga has been derived from the Sanskrit word yuj, which means “to add or join”. That is why Yoga is also knows as a union of the individual consciousness or soul with the Universal Consciousness or Spirit. Yoga is a 5000 year old Indian body of knowledge.

I bet you can define and tell anybody about Yoga if someone asks you about Yoga and what it is. Moving forward with this ultimate guide of Yoga let’s now learn how to do it?

How do I do Yoga and where?

First of all let me answer the second question, Yoga is the only practice which can be done almost anywhere in the world. You can do yoga in your office, home or maybe in your lawn.

Now it’s time to learn how to do Yoga in a proper way? Let’s dive in more deep with our ultimate Yoga guide.

What are the prerequisites?

Actually there is no need of any prerequisite other than a silent place if you already know poses of Yoga and have a Yoga mat at home. But in case you don’t know how to do yoga you should definitely learn it from sources below:

  1. http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Yoga-for-Absolute-Beginners
  2. The complete Guide on how to do Yoga

By the way you’ll find more resources like these in the Bonus section below this ultimate Yoga guide.

Do’s and Don’ts to know before doing Yoga

Yama means self-restraint in the sense of self-mastery, or abstention, and consists of five elements. Niyama means observances, of which there are also five. Here is the complete list of these ten Pillars as given in Yoga Sutras.

  1. Ahimsa: non-violence, non-injury, harmlessness
  2. Satya: truthfulness, honesty
  3. Asteya: non-stealing, honesty, non-misappropriativeness
  4. Brahmacharya: sexual continence in thought, word and deed as well as control of all the senses
  5. Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-greed, non-selfishness, non-acquisitiveness
  6. Shaucha: purity, cleanliness
  7. Santosha: contentment, peacefulness
  8. Tapas: austerity, practical (i.e., result-producing) spiritual discipline
  9. Swadhyaya: introspective self-study, spiritual study
  10. Ishwarapranidhana: offering of one’s life to God

So as far now you’ve learn why yoga is good and beneficial? what exactly does it mean? and what are the Do’s and Don’ts of Yoga? I would recommend you to start yoga from today because today is a very special day and guess what it’s International Yoga Day. Now let’s move forward to the benefits Yoga can bring to your life or may I say a healthy life.

What are the Benefits of Yoga?

We’ve already discussed about why yoga is beneficial, why it is important and so popular in the previous section of this ultimate Yoga guide but now you are going to learn the real benefits of Yoga. Following are the benefits of Yoga which can help you stay healthy both mentally and physically:

  • Lowers stress
  • Boosts Confidence
  • Improves your mood
  • Lowers the risk of injury
  • Helps you lose weight
  • Benefits in breathing and lowers blood pressure
  • Improves your posture
  • Increases Flexibility

That’s an ultimate guide to Yoga in which we covered Why Yoga is Beneficial, Important and Good for Healthy Living?, What it is? and how to do it?

But wait I’m not finished yet there’s more in the bonus section below for you.