There are many benefits of yoga and I truly believe I’ve only scratched the surface in my experience with it. As a student and teacher, I continue to find new reasons to love yoga and how it benefits me. I love the instant openness in my body and sense of awareness after taking a class. Magic always happens when I step on my mat and I have never regretted attending a class.

So if you have doubted or built up a list of objections as to why you shouldn’t practice yoga, I urge you to take a look at the list below and strongly reconsider.

Yogi: Latham Thomas Photographer: Zakkiyyah Najeebah Site: http://www.blackgirlinom.com — Photo: Zakkiyyah Najeebah

Health benefits

Like milk (allegedly), yoga does your body good. I could honestly go on and on about the things that your body can experience from the activity, so I’ll just focus on a few, such as lower blood pressure, increased blood flow, improvement in your breathing and reduced insomnia. Yoga is also a great way to relieve stress and instantly boost your mood. These benefits will improve your overall health and eventually you’ll see physical changes.

Physical benefits

If you maintain a consistent practice, your body will undergo many physical changes. Not only will you begin to see your muscles tone, you will improve your flexibility, build muscle strength and improve your posture and balance. Most importantly, yoga will help to ease any pain or discomfort that you might have. The most wonderful and fun physical benefit of all is that yoga can make you a better lover.

Because of the health and physical changes that your body will go through, you will be a healthier and happier person. You will go through a complete internal and physical transformation that helps you to connect to your body and makes you more in tune with your mind and spirit.

All of that overflows into other areas of your life.

Lifestyle benefits

As you can see, being a yogi has many benefits. You get to spend quality time with yourself and focus on what matters most — your health. You will begin to see positive changes in other areas of your life and others will notice those subtle changes around you too. Yoga will help increase your happiness and self-esteem, improve your focus and increase your sense of awareness.

If you truly want to experience the health, physical and lifestyle benefits I mentioned here, I highly suggests practicing at least several times a week. It doesn’t always have to be an hour-long class, you can get the same great benefits with just 10-15 minutes per day or 30 minutes several times a week. You can practice a few of your favorite poses or even spend time working on your breathing and meditation.

It’s never too late to get started. Find what works for you and start today.

What benefit of yoga are you the most excited about? Sound off in the comments and share this post:

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