Yoga has been proven to have a really positive effect in reducing stress as well as improving fitness.
When it comes to picking the right exercise for you, this can be a challenge. If for example, you’ve done a Hair Mineral Tissue Analysis and it’s revealed that your body is very low on mineral reserves, you won’t want to do anything too onerous. Whilst it’s not for everyone, yoga has been proven to have a really positive effect in reducing stress as well as improving fitness.
So how does yoga reduce stress?
Well the first thing you need to know is that within the body, the stress response runs across certain paths, connecting the brain to the rest of the body. Within the brain, there are two sections, one for initiating a stress response via the sympathetic nervous system and the other to turn off the stress response via the parasympathetic nervous system. As such, together, they form a circuit of sorts.
Yoga works to train this circuit. Firstly, by holding a posture where you are bending forward, trying to concentrate and balance, the relaxation response of the parasympathetic nervous system is being turned on. In contrast, by bending backwards, it triggers a stress response to contract muscles. Since you’re still trying to concentrate and stay focused, this basically trains your parasympathetic nervous system to better cope with higher levels of stress so that you don’t get stressed as easily and can better manage stress.
What’s interesting is that the more you practice yoga, the more this becomes less of a temporary stress control and more of a permanent one. You see, by continuously training the ‘relax’ parts of your brain, you can rewire the neural circuitry, helping you to better cope with daily stressors.
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