By Sangeetha Saran

The physical benefits of yoga are well known and well documented, but practicing it provides many exciting benefits for the mind too. Like most people, you may feel like thoughts are zipping through your mind at 100 miles per hour during every waking hour. The hectic nature of modern life is largely to blame for this phenomenon, but practicing yoga on a regular basis can help. If you’d like to learn to live in the moment and to stop fretting endlessly about the past and future, yoga can help you get there.

Live in the Moment

Ruminating about the past and worrying about the future isn’t just mentally draining; it’s unproductive, too. One of the best ways to break this all-too-common habit is by occasionally emptying all thoughts from your mind. Meditation is a great way to do this, but learning how to meditate effectively is easier said than done. Yoga offers the perfect solution for busy people who want to evacuate pointless, anxiety-provoking thoughts from their minds. Breathing exercises, or pranayama, are integral parts of the discipline. As you learn to perfect them, you’ll find that it becomes easier and easier to enjoy the present.

Achieve Tranquility

Newcomers to yoga often assume that the tranquility they achieve while practicing the discipline is ephemeral. That’s not the case at all. As you gain more experience, you’ll find that the peacefulness you achieve while assuming various poses can extend far beyond the yoga studio. These exercises help to condition your mind as well as your body. Think of yoga as a way to retrain your brain. Over time, your mind will become increasingly accustomed to not constantly being barraged with intrusive, stressful thoughts. In other words, a state of tranquility and peace will become the rule instead of the exception.

Keep Your Mind in the Present

After getting a taste for what yoga can do for your mind, you’re sure to be more excited about it than ever. By sticking with it, you will be able to achieve exceptional clarity and acuity wherever you go and whatever you do. Yoga teaches you how to keep your mind in the present, which is the most effective way to shed needless concerns. Once your mind has been freed in this way, the sky really is the limit. Everyone’s journey is different, but one thing’s for sure: Yoga is a superior way to achieve exceptional physical and mental freedom.

© Copyright 2014 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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