Yoga

With stressful working environments and hectic schedules, many people struggle with the negative impact of their busy work lives. Those who have difficulty managing their personal and work lives in balance with each other are increasingly turning to yoga exercises. Yoga helps them achieve peace of mind and helps them reach that ideal work-life balance.

The mind-body connection is piquing interest in this ancient practice, and research shows that it can indeed reduce blood pressure and stress, improve your work performance, and even make you age more slowly.

Although the focus on yoga may be different depending on the environment, its basic premise is to relax the body while keeping the mind focused and alert. For example, when you do yoga, you focus on body movement, breath, sound or even an object. When your mind wanders, as it inevitably will, you bring your attention back and start again.

The age-old art of yoga gained new interest in the 60’s as part of the consciousness raising activities of the period. However, after this, yoga began to fall out of favor. This might be because yoga isn’t quite the same as many other kinds of exercise.

For example, you need patience in order to get its full benefits. It offers steady but slow results. This contrasts starkly with the frenzied pace and fast results of aerobics.

Many people rush to work out every day during their lunch hours, force themselves to keep up a brisk pace, and then rush back to work. No doubt there are physical benefits, but nevertheless it increases the pressure of an already busy life. Yoga, by contrast, offers a less competitive and stressful way to work out, while supporting and even causing an overall feeling of simply “being.”

One of the major reasons yoga is making a comeback is because it can be so healing as an activity. The over-the-top push for fitness generated by the traditional exercise regimes of aerobics, running, or weight lifting has led to a rash of injuries, including neck pain, back pain, or strained knees.

These days, it’s not uncommon for the mainstream medical profession, including orthopedic surgeons, neurologists and chiropractors, to recommend yoga to their patients.

As a matter of fact, it’s becoming more and more mainstream all the time. Hospitals and businesses are now teaching yoga techniques, books about yoga are bestsellers, and discussion groups on the Internet have sprung up to talk about this “new” innovation.

Surprisingly, perhaps, even the Army has gotten in on the act. It has asked the National Academy of Sciences to study New Age techniques such as meditation to see if soldiers’ performance can be enhanced in this way.

Also, yoga has become popular among those who weight train, run or do aerobics because of its stress reducing benefits.

Approximately 60 to 90% of doctors’ visits in the U.S. are tied to stress. Mind-body approaches offer cost-effective and safe treatments for this ailment that don’t involve drugs or surgery. Among people who use these techniques, 34% of patients who are infertile get pregnant within six months, while 70% of those who have trouble sleeping or even have medically defined insomnia become regular sleepers. As well, a decrease of 36 percent is seen in the number of people suffering from pain and making regular visits to the doctor.