“What happens if you do yoga regularly?” To answer that question, it is important to first determine what is meant by ‘regular’.
According to Nicole de Raad, yoga instructor and owner of yoga school Bindi, you really don’t have to practice yoga every day to experience the benefits. “Once a week is enough to experience the many benefits, but if you go more often, you will naturally experience those benefits better or more.”
Nicole: “The best results of yoga can be seen in the areas of sex, stress, sleeping, your posture and controlling your breathing. These factors together ensure that you feel more comfortable in your skin as a whole and have more energy. ”
In the previous article of this series we already explained why yoga is so good for you, including your posture. In this article we will discuss the effects mentioned by Nicole when doing yoga regularly.
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Sex
According to an investigation from 2009 in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, regular practice of yoga improves feelings of desire, sexual arousal, and orgasms, among other things.
Sex is about making contact. Contact with someone else, but actually first with yourself. Something more difficult than expected. In this society we have become accustomed to making a match of everything.
Unfortunately, this sometimes also applies to sex: do we do it often enough? Is it exciting enough? We focus our attention on the wrong things, which makes us slowly forget what really matters. Yoga helps you go back to the ‘basics’ of sex, which leads to more connection and pleasure, or a better sex life.
Stressvermindering
Not only does yoga help reduce stress, it can even help prevent stress symptoms. Doctors are increasingly referring patients with burnout-related complaints to yoga or mindfulness classes, for the following reason: in many cases, drugs only suppress symptoms, instead of tackling the root cause of a problem.
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Yoga directly tackles the core of almost every stress problem. It teaches you to become more aware of your body and mind, so you can calm your body and mind and reduce or avoid stress on its own.
Sleep better
Sleeping also contributes to feeling better about yourself. While sleeping, your body cleans itself and is recharged with new energy. A bad night’s sleep therefore means less energy – and you don’t want that.
We are busy. Much busier than before and perhaps busier than necessary. This is due to our modern lifestyle, where we are always ‘on’. Periods of stress and bustle alternate and prevent us from falling asleep at night.
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Doing yoga before going to bed will soothe your body. You slow down the speed that you have built up during the day, as it were. Focus on calm and deep breathing (we will come back to this later) and create peace in your body and mind.
A pleasant environment with as little artificial light as possible enhances this tranquility. In this way you stimulate the production of melatonin and you will see that you fall asleep faster.
Check breathing
Yoga and breathing are closely related. During yoga a lot of attention is paid to breathing and breathing techniques (pranayamas). You may think: why then? But our breathing is more important than you think.
For example, consider the following: When you are angry, your breathing is rapid and when you are calm, it is quiet. This shows that our breath is not only connected to our body, but also to our mind.
Performing yoga or meditation daily calms the mind and calms your breath – as well as your body. When the speed of your breathing slows, it has a positive effect on high blood pressure and other conditions. Paying attention to your breath and pranayamas helps you regulate your life energy in your system and ultimately feel better in every way imaginable.
Next week we will tell you about which styles exist within the yoga world and we will explain which style can benefit you the most!
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