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Some people wonder if they’ll lose weight when doing yoga. Some want to improve their performance, whether it is greater flexibility or strength. Some want to heal their chronic pain or improve their posture. The truth is - yoga does all that. 

The reason why yoga improves every aspect of your body is that it uses primal movements. When you observe yoga poses, you will notice you’ve done many of them since you were a child. We squat before we walk, nearly every child tries rolling on the floor, stretching, and doing the candle pose. With yoga, we’re not focusing only on one aspect of our body. We’re doing natural movements that simultaneously improve our strength and range of motion.

Still, there are different styles of yoga you can do, if you want to focus on a certain physical benefit. All styles will still improve every aspect of your body, but some do some things a bit better than others.

For example, if your main goal is to build strength and lose weight, a more dynamic style of yoga would be appropriate. There are many styles of dynamic yoga, including Ashtanga, Rocket yoga, Iyengar yoga, Hot yoga, and more, but they can all be described as Vinyasa Yoga. Vinyasa yoga is every type of practice where you spend a lot of time in standing poses and move through them at a fast pace. 

On the other hand, those who want to combat back pain and other chronic issues, or want to improve their flexibility, will be attracted to more gentle yoga styles. Although Hatha yoga meant something else in the past, today we relate this word to a slow and gentle yoga style. Other variations are Restorative and Yin yoga. In these styles of yoga, we spend most of our time in sitting and lying positions, and we hold them for longer.

Most yogis are attracted to one style of yoga the most. Still, with time, you will realize you don’t have to decide. Simply choose the style of yoga that gives you the physical benefit you need on this day, this season, or this period of your life. 

Every year, you hear more people start doing yoga. Maybe it's your friend, a coworker, or a family member. Something truly magnetic about the practice makes everyone instantly attracted to it. 

Although it's getting more and more popular, yoga is much more than just a trend. Even if people go to their first class because they've seen others do it - that's not why they stay.

When you go for your first yoga practice, you might think it will improve only one aspect of your life. Perhaps you do it for its physical benefits or because you want to incorporate some type of spiritual practice into your life. But soon, you realize it seems to affect every aspect of your being - and that's precisely what it is intended to do.

The True Importance Of Yoga

Old yogis understood that humans are physical, mental, and spiritual beings. They developed yoga to help harmonize all three levels of our beings. True yoga in India didn't develop only around physical exercise. It was primarily a spiritual practice focused on developing virtues that help us reach our highest potential and find purpose in our life.

Still, even if you only practice the physical postures or asanas, you will see a change in all three levels of your being. That's not only a promise coming from the subjective experiences of practitioners... it is also something that we can and have proven by science today. 

Physical yoga practice is a form of education about living a better life. On the mat, we become aware of our body and our movement. We connect to our breath and learn to control it. The breath serves as a sort of bridge between our physical body, our mind, and our spiritual self. You can experience that as soon as you start controlling your breath. And you don't have to believe us to our word - you can try it right now. 

Start deepening your breath. That means your inhales and exhales get longer, and you activate all the organs involved in the breathing action. As you inhale, lift both your belly and chest and try to make your exhalation longer than your inhale. Only after a couple of moments will you experience a sense of calm. Your thoughts will be quieter, and you will enter a state of meditation. Try closing your eyes, and breathe for a minute or two.

Now, in only a few moments of conscious breathing, you have experienced the true importance of yoga. Without any preparation - you have managed to connect your body, mind, and spiritual presence.

When we start practicing yoga regularly, we learn of this control over our bodies. We discover we can calm ourselves down, heal our pains, and become aware of the present moment. This happens even if we're not aware of it, but it does become more significant when we are conscious of what we're doing.

First, you learn to connect your breath, movement, thoughts, and emotions during a one-hour yoga class. Then you can begin to take that skill and incorporate it into your daily life off the yoga mat. 

That's the true importance of yoga. When you learn this vital knowledge, you will see the benefits in your everyday life, and your well-being will improve. 

With yoga:

• You are healing yourself
• You are building your spiritual practice
• You are improving your mental health. 

With yoga, you gain back control of your own being. That empowerment makes it so important, especially in this fast-paced time in which we live today.

The purpose of practicing meditation is not to become great at meditating. Who would want to become great at sitting and "OMMMMM"? Nonono. The purpose of meditation is to become better at LIVING.

Meditating helps us understand our mind rather than escape it. We can learn to contemplate the weather as it is instead of trying to control it. Sometimes our mind can conceive the worst of any thought or situation; and spin it to turn it into a whirl of turmoil, angst, and worry. We can learn to see that perhaps and only perhaps, once we let go of control and appreciate the moment, it was not as bad as our mind made it out to be.

Once we free our minds from scary thoughts, we open up space to feel, create and imagine. We let ourselves see the world, and even our own thoughts, with newfound clarity.

Happiness is one challenging concept to define, but meditation certainly helps us get closer to that abstract space/feeling/state we humans call happy.