5 Benefits of Doing Yoga Regularly
So often here at the studio, we get asked, “How often should I come to yoga?” or “How many classes should I attend per week?” Our answers always vary depending on the student inquiring. We consistently say there are numerous benefits to rolling out your yoga mat on the regular.
Firstly, every student is different. So, there is no golden rule for how much yoga is the right amount. In some cases, more and more and more yoga is not always best. Some students may have young children and little spare time, whereas others may be freshly retired with ample free time to focus on their health and well-being.
“There is no golden rule for how much yoga is the right amount. In some cases, more and more and more yoga is not always best.”
Everyone is at a different stage in their lives and hence will have obligations affecting how much yoga they can do. There is much benefit from taking just one class a week, committing to 10 minutes a day before bed, or practicing yoga daily. Let us explore just a few of the benefits of regular yoga practice.
Strength, Power, Courage and Confidence
These words often don’t come to mind right away when someone thinks of yoga. Usually, we tend to think yoga is for flexibility, fitness, meditation or whatever we see on Instagram (rolls eyes).
The truth is practicing yoga postures regularly, like in a hatha yoga class, will encourage students to develop a strong and powerful body. Standing poses build muscular and stable legs through standing and balance poses in various positions.
We also can’t overlook how amazing yoga is for increasing core, back, and shoulder strength and stability as we place our bodies mindfully in positions that are often challenging. By experiencing strength and control, students start to build the confidence to try new and more challenging poses.
This courage and confidence, in turn, can transcend off our yoga mat and into difficult situations in our lives. The physical practice of yoga asana (postures) literally teaches us to stand tall and build the confidence to face life head-on.
Consistency and Building New Habits
When we start feeling better, it is easy to commit to our well-being. Realizing that we have the power to change how we feel, how we handle stress, and how we manage pain can be life-changing. Showing up consistently to yoga helps students learn to move better and modify poses to their individual abilities, especially with a supportive studio and teachers.
In yoga, we are constantly learning and adapting. We can create new healthy movement habits and even new energetic and mental patterns when we encounter stress, tension or pain. When we learn how to relieve stress, pain, and tension and experience some of the tools yoga provides to accomplish this, it is easier to build a new habit and schedule yoga into our lives regularly!
Community and the Shared Experience
Life gets lonely sometimes, and it sure can be nice to share experiences with others. We all crave connectivity, community, and friendship. Yoga studios are the perfect place to meet like-minded individuals committed to their well-being and practice yoga together.
Not only is it nice to be in a group, but it is also scientifically proven to be a more healing environment than practicing yoga on your own. We are social creatures, and being part of a regular group yoga class and moving, breathing, laughing, and connecting together is a healing and fulfilling activity.
More and more research is showing the benefits of staying connected to others and the importance of the psycho-social aspects of our lives. Group Yoga classes allow students to have fun learning with others and offer the nurturing support of a teacher guiding them throughout the session. Yoga is a great physical, mental and emotional practice, but it also provides social connectivity and helps us grow and heal with others!
Regulating Our Nervous System and Calming the Mind
Many students who practice yoga on the regular do so for the downregulating effects of grounding the body, deep calm breathing, and mental clarity and focus that comes from meditation. Everybody deals with stress, anxiety, worry and huge emotions in our lives. Yoga provides tools to slow down our breathing, regulate the nervous system, develop a clear mind, and process and experience these big feelings. This often allows them to dissipate.
The processes of yoga and meditation aren’t instant, and students have to learn what works for them. Whether practicing balance poses, deep breathing or doing relaxation or meditation exercises, we can find inner peace. Taking regular yoga classes familiarizes students with practices from many different lineages of yoga that result in inner peace and clarity of mind.
Self-Awareness and Realization
When students start doing yoga regularly and feel amazing, they usually begin to understand the actions, habits, and choices that cause stress, tension, discomfort and other sufferings. These actions and habits could be poor posture, long hours sitting, weak muscles, or how students deal with conflict or emotions. Our yoga wakes us up and helps us find new pathways to wholeness and contentment.
In yogic and Buddhist philosophy, the Sanskrit term Samsara is the repetitive cycle of death and rebirth. To break a cycle that causes negativity in our lives, we must become aware or enlightened to the cause or habit in our current existence and be able to let go of the old and welcome new possibilities.
Yoga can be a life-changing practice, even just doing one class a week, as it offers a space for us to slow down, feel, observe, and contemplate our lives. It is a living meditation practice.
In closing, how much yoga should one do to receive beneficial results? Any amount of yoga practice done appropriately, with care and compassion, will positively affect the student.
We hope this post encourages and inspires any reader to dive into starting a regular yoga practice!