Today yoga is practiced widely for its benefits such as improving health and well being.  Yoga is a welcome contrast against the often hectic background of our busy lives.

For yoga practitioners who become ‘hooked,’ glimpses of yoga’s original essence fuse into the practice.  Subtly and powerfully, changes begin to happen.   The uniqueness of these changes differs widely, but with a strong and regular practice of yoga postures-- along with breathing and concentration featured in most yoga classes--some common benefits occur.

• Regulation and strengthening of the internal organs, immune system, endocrine glands, nervous system, digestion, blood pressure and circulation are welcome gifts.  Celebrating improved natural body-functions, there is less need to rely on outside chemicals, stimulants, etc.

• Stress relieving practices take hold, and the sympathetic nervous system’s function remains less reactive to life’s little stresses, yet fully available upon genuine need.  Enjoying less stressful reactions, one senses inner peace and freedom while buffering outer conflicts.

• Joint mobility and range of motion improves.  Body tightness is replaced with elongated and more resilient tissues, tendons, ligaments, muscles and nerves.  Yoga is often represented as just a ‘way to become flexible.’  There is much more going on at the same time.  If the yoga practice is well balanced there is accompanying strength created to integrate these opposites.

• Mental and emotional clearing are powerful tools to maintain a healthy outlook on life.  Today much medical study is directed toward discovering how our attitudes affect our health.  Yoga stabilizes swinging emotions and reduces mental worries.  The time spent doing yoga is like opening a door to peek inside ourselves.  When we are willing to just Be, and become an observer to how transient the mind is, we find courage to see things as they really are.

• Breathing is usually taken for granted.  During yoga, breathing is integral to quieting the mind.   It also relaxes the body to respond to requests for deeper movements than usual.  The energy which fuels the body as oxygen contains  ‘prana,’ our very life force.  Indeed without it, we die.  Since we usually use a very limited portion of the lungs, yoga teaches us to access more of this life giving fuel.  The dormant pockets in the body are stimulated and awakened with renewed oxygen/prana flow.

• Finding our full potential is a tall order!  Yoga rises to the occasion as a tool to discover our sense of self and place in the world.  Much waste of energy and time is spent looking and longing for a higher purpose.  When we recognize that the keys to the kingdom were with us all along, a wave of peace can transcend barriers.  Yoga reminds us that the keys never really left us.  The ancient yogi's tool for liberation is a timely gift today.