How Yoga Changed My Life

A couple of years ago I was an unhealthy teenage girl, both in mind and body. I was unfit, had back and knee joint paint, and I was not happy. Now I'm a 20 year old who's healthy and happy.
About a year and a half ago I decided to change and become a healthier person, and one of the things I decided I wanted to do was yoga. Yoga has become a huge part of my life now, and I can't see that changing!

If you know me personally then I can pretty much be 100% certain that I've told you to do yoga at least once. It's something I believe everyone would benefit from, and I'm about to tell you why.


Before I started practising yoga I thought it was literally just a bit of simple stretching and mediation. I thought the only benefits you could get from it were flexibility and perhaps a bit of calm in your mind, but there's so much more. The benefits to a regular yoga practise are endless!

1. It builds muscle strength. At first I found some yoga poses quite challenging because of the strength in your whole body you need to achieve them, but now I find my body is strong and it's so much easier to hold more advanced positions. My arms are more toned, my abs are strong and my back & legs are stronger too!
2. Yoga improves your posture. In a world where so many people sit at computers all day posture is becoming somewhat of an issue! Yoga teaches you to stand and sit tall, thus preventing damage to the spine and it makes you look slimmer too.
3. Increases blood flow. Yoga aids circulation by getting more oxygen to your blood cells. Twisting poses wring out venous blood from internal organs. Inverted poses (headstands, should stands and hand stands) allow venous blood from the legs and pelvis to flow back to the heart, where it can be pumped to the lungs to be freshly oxygenated. All this reduces the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney problems.
4. Prevents cartilage breakdown. As your joints are going through a full range of motion this can help to prevent degenerative arthritis and other joint disabilities.
5. Yoga protects your spine. Keeping the discs in your back supple is so important, and a yoga practice with plenty of backbends, forward bends and twists will really help that.
6. Betters bone health. This is something important to me as I have a high risk of developing osteoporosis. Yoga requires you to lift your own weight which strengths your bones, and also reduces a stress hormone which isn't good for calcium in the bones.
7. Lowers blood sugar. Yoga's been found to lower cortisol and adrenaline levels, which encourages weigh loss and improves sensitivity to the effects of insulin.
8. Yoga helps you focus. During your practise you should focus on the present, not the past of the future, just the now. This is important, and it improves co-ordination, reaction time, memory and even IQ scores with regular practise.
9. Contrary to popular belieft yoga can give you a real workout! Sure, yoga can be super relaxing but it can also be tough, it can get your heart pumping and cause you to sweat!


All of those benefits can be found with regular practise, but what real results have I seen from a almost 2 years daily yoga practise?
I'm stronger, more balanced and more flexible than I was before and that's improving constantly.
I find I'm a lot happier in my mind, I feel calmer and more confident as well.
I sleep better and my brain doesn't feel so busy at night.
I'm in less pain…this is the biggest benefit for me. Before practising yoga I wouldn't be able to stand for even half an hour without chronic back pain, and aching legs…..I'd even moan when walking around the shops! Now I never, ever have that problem. When I go to work I'm on my feet for 8 hours and it doesn't bother me at all.
Maybe now you can understand how yoga changed my life for the better, and why I believe everyone should practise it and start enjoying the beautiful benefits that will sure follow.

If you're thinking of giving yoga a try then please YogaWithAdriene on YouTube…she is fantastic and the only yoga videos I watch are hers. There's none of that silly music in the background, she's real - not a yoga robot, she encourages you to 'find what feels good' and adapt poses to suit you if you need to, and her range of videos is superb.

Namaste.