By Niki Hayes
Why do you practice yoga?
Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to be able to touch your toes again? Did your doctor send you here to help with your high blood pressure? Did your chiropractor send you here to help with your bad back? Do you want to lower your stress level?
If you answered yes to any of these - good news, you are on the right track! Yoga will help with all of this. Just know that while you may be doing yoga to heal your knee injury or shrink your waistline, there are also benefits occurring simultaneously that you may not be aware of. Bikram describes these benefits as “the intangibles”.
“Keep in mind that yoga is not reducible to a quantified number of medical benefits. Even as yoga makes measurable changes in your muscles, organs, bones and spine, it's also working on what we call the “subtle anatomy”, renewing and reviving you at the cellular level, invisibly taking care of every atom and molecule. There’s an emotional and psychological aspect to the healing process as well – the mind/body connection. This is soul-stretching, mind-restoring and Spirit-building. The unquantifiable improvements in your quality of life and your attitude toward life make themselves felt in every cell as well. When you’re well, they’re well.”
Be well my friends.