Yoga Is Essential To Women's Health

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Yoga Is Essential To Women's Health

Here are some of the many ways yoga can benefit the lives of women.

Yoga can induce happiness. Practicing for one hour raised avid yogis' levels of the brain chemical gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) by 27 percent, a study from Boston University School of Medicine and McLean Hospital reports. Low GABA is associated with anxiety and depression. It has also been proven that yoga is significantly more effective than anti-depressants.

Practicing yoga can maintain and increase lean muscle. In our thirties, women begin losing muscle without regular exercise. This doesn't mean we need to be pumping weights in the gym. Yoga uses weight-bearing exercises that don't build bulky muscles but define and tone instead.

It improves posture. Studies show that good posture generates energy and reduces stress and fatigue. Poor posture is not only bad for your spine in the present, but it can be life alteringlater in life. An unhealthy spine causes long-term pain and discomfort and can prevent your spine from being able to naturally absorb shock and maintain proper balance.

It helps maintain a healthy weight. Many yoga postures help regulate the thyroid gland as well as metabolism. The mind/body connection also makes us more in tune with how we treat our bodies and what we put in to it. Thus, it sets us up for a healthier diet.

Yoga can improve sex. Sex isn't only important to a healthy relationship but it also helps reduce anxiety. Yoga increases body awareness and even speeds the release of hormones that rev arousal. This all boosts libido, lubrication and ability to achieve orgasm.

It can help reduce stress. Women who go to the mat regularly release a tension-triggered cytokine (a type of protein) that can make you feel tired and moody. So many people don't know why but they know that they feel more at ease after yoga. Now you know one reason why.

And, yoga can help build confidence. It's our nature to want to take care of everyone else and we often don't take time for self. Committing to a regular yoga practice requires us to take time out for ourselves, to make ourselves a priority for just one hour so that actually, we are that much better for everyone else in our lives. It's empowering to see quick results in endurance, balance, and strength.

We learn to see ourselves more than just our genetic makeup, or genes, yet more of what we are capable of doing. We begin to see our bodies as a strong, capable, beautiful package for our mind and soul.