Kuldeep Gupta
Yoga is addition of energy, strength and beauty to body, mind and soul
Today we are living in uncertain times where social, environmental and financial instability is rocking at every door right now, due to one or the other reason. Amid such universal scenarios of doom and gloom, practicing Yoga can be our ‘secret key’ for achieving holistic well-being, as it can assist us in bringing our minds, souls and bodies back to a state of natural calm, rest and balance.
Analysing with dedication and devotion it can be said that apart from art of healthy living Yoga is a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science, which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. The holistic approach of Yoga brings harmony to all walks of life. The word yoga literally means “to yoke” or “union”. More than just a practice of physical exercises, Yoga is the coming together of the individual self or consciousness, with the infinite universal consciousness or spirit. It is a method of inquiry into the nature of the mind, which emphasizes practice and direct experience. Yoga is thus an ancient art based on a harmonizing system for development of the body, mind, and spirit. It simply signifies ‘integration of personality’ at the highest level that includes various practices and techniques mentioned in the yogic literature and are collectively referred to as ‘Yoga’.
The benefits of Yoga are endless where it effects the human mind and body in a variety of ways. In today’s always running and competitive world nobody thinks about keeping some time aside for yoga. It turns out that yoga is not only beneficial for adults but is equally more beneficial for students. We know that students commonly don’t have much spare time to spend for yoga because of homework, tasks, preparing for exam, social lives, and many more and as such are living in a stressful atmosphere. So, it is essential for students to start doing yoga as soon as possible, because it will bring a lot of positive things for their academic stuff. Yoga and studying in life of student won’t add up together even to form a sentence but this is where most of us go wrong. Education today is all about running around and working hard for managing high grades in exams thereby is just only a mental pressure to the students. There are several reasons why yoga would improve your academic performances. First, yoga will teach you on how to focus and concentrate on your job and thus, it will improve your concentration while doing your tasks in school. Second, yoga will also teach you how to relax and take a deep breath. This thing would be beneficial, especially when you are feeling nervous before taking the exam. Believe it, one hour daily of yoga can help in improving concentration which indirectly and fortunately for today’s teenager leads to grade improvement as this helps them concentrate better making learning easier and efficient.
With self-love, comes self-care and yoga can teach these values at a very young age. The children learn to be comfortable in their own skin and nurture it well. The vastness of academic curriculum alone can baffle students and yet, they deal with many other extra-curricular activities and social life as well. By practicing pranayama and mindfulness, students really learn how to handle the anxiety and manage the different aspects of life effectively. The peace of mind stimulates the release of good hormones that have a snowball effect and uplifts the disposition of the child in general.
As students don’t have time for managing or keeping track of their health they easily fall in traps of various diseases and health problems like blood pressure, headache, heart problems, breathing difficulties, joint problems and many others. Doing yoga can reduce the risk of getting a serious heart problem by manifolds, also balances the blood pressure and helps in regulating the natural breathing rhythm. In short to conclude with, Yoga practice is safe and can bring many health benefits to practitioners. The beauty of Yoga is that it can be practiced by anyone. It doesn’t matter how old you are or what shape you are in. Yoga increases an individual’s physical coordination and promotes better posture. It helps stimulate the circulatory system, the digestive process as well as the nervous and endocrine system. Yoga is dynamite to make you feel younger, refreshed and energetic. In short Yoga is the perfect example of holistic health because of its combination of mind and body and is a multidisciplinary tool extremely useful to purify the mind and body and gain control over our minds and emotions. It is the most popular means for self transformation and physical wellbeing.
(The author is Lecturer in Zoology at Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School Arnia, Jammu)
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