Yoga Benefits - Yoga Affects Your Spirit
Are you just getting started with taking online yoga classes? Are you a beginner yoga student? I am so happy that you are here reading this blog post, perhaps taking yoga on the internet with me and sampling other fitness classes and yoga teachers during this crazy pandemic. We all need a little calm and good breathing in our lives right now. Yoga is guaranteed to help you improve your mood, lower your blood pressure and can reduce anxiety. Something we all need during this national lockdown. My motto is use it or lose it. There is no excuse to get plump. I love teaching the YogaShape Method and hearing how it is improving my students lives.
I truly believe that yoga is the fountain of youth and not only are you healthier and feel happier in fact, the benefits of a regular yoga practice go far beyond the physical and mental. Yup, we are talking about the spiritual benefits of yoga classes. Yoga is thousands of years old. Over the centuries, yoga has been used by practitioners to connect to something greater than themselves. The spiritual enlightenment that yoga provides is astounding. What our ancestors knew so long ago is still true today! Learn some of the spiritual benefits of yoga below – then find out how you can harness these benefits while taking online yoga classes with me and by attending yoga festivals to really be part of the yoga tribe and connect on a deeper level with your local yoga and plant based community.
A Holistic Connection
The word holistic is becoming more popular. It’s used as a synonym for “healthy” and “natural.” That’s cool, but do you know its definition? Holistic means the entirety of something, all of the parts and pieces that make it up. Practicing yoga leads to a holistic connection to your mind, body and soul. This connection and amazing feeling that you have after doing a yoga class helps improve your life on many levels. You don’t just feel better, you ARE better. This includes building muscles, getting stronger and more lean, which then leads to a higher metabolism. From a spiritual perspective, being holistically connected means things being more mindful (connecting spirit and mind – more on this in just a second) and learning how to release negative emotions (connecting spirit and body).
Becoming More Mindful
Another one of the spiritual benefits of yoga is becoming more mindful. Learning mindfulness and practicing it in your daily life, often through yoga, leads to another type of holistic connection. You’re improving your mental and emotional wellbeing through staying deeply attuned to what’s happening in and around you. We like to call this spiritual attention. This is why we also focus on our breath a lot as it helps you clear your mind and be in the present.
Spiritual attention has many forms, but one of our favorites is also one of the simplest. Balasana (also called child’s pose) is one of the most basic asanas in yoga. It involves kneeling, touching your forehead to the mat, and stretching your arms behind you with your palms up. Sound similar to anything else? Kneeling before a deity or, perhaps, the spiritual power of all deities? I thought so!
Mindfulness also helps improve your concentration, which then makes it easier to practice spiritual attention. Think of yoga’s spiritual benefits as a kind of snowball – every inch you move forward makes it even easier to keep on moving.
Find Your Vibe - Find Your Tribe
Attending a yoga festival might not seem like it has spiritual benefits…but it does! People don’t attend festivals because they have nothing better to do. Sure, you can practice yoga at home, go to your local studio to take classes but attending a yoga festival can be life changing. You can sample so many styles of yoga, shop in a yoga marketplace filled with goodies and participate in what according to Yoga Journal says is a 16 billion dollar a year habit - Americans practicing yoga, attending festivals and buying yoga related clothing and accessories. Rather, attending a yoga festival offers a way to bring your passion to the front and allows you to connect with those in your community as you start your spiritual journey with yoga. Plus, it is super fun to connect with so many like minded folks, build your network and try something new.
By attending a yoga festival you’re putting the ideas from above into practice. It enables you to immerse yourself in a total mind, body and soul experience. You get to connect with other like minded yogis and not to mention the live music from drumming to kirtan and amazing DJ'’s spinning dance trance like tunes are quite fun.
Now that you know some of the spiritual benefits of yoga, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice! Check out my Bucket List of the Top 10 Yoga Festivals that you should attend. I might see some of you on the yoga festival circuit or perhaps you will attend Yoga Fun Day Miami which is the festival I put on every year and we are in our fourth year. Yoga Fun DAy Miami is an amazing yoga festival planned by yours truly. My baby, my vision and I will be teaching The YogaShape Method live at these festivals. Hope to see you on the mat!
If you liked this article please drop me a line and share with your friends and family.
Namaste,
Sam
Founder
The YogaShape Method