...Yoga is an ancient way, practiced for thousands of years, steeped in tradition and, to most people, a mysterious enigma. When practitioners would speak of the many benefits they had experienced in both mental and physical health, yoga would seem to be both a perfect practice, or one whose claims were impossible to believe.

practitioners of yoga, or yogis/yogins (yogini for the ladies) would speak of the unification of mind, spirit, and body. The belief was that when these were brought into balance the persons mental and physical health would improve. The word "harmony" would be heard a lot, as would be "healing", again, applied both to the body and the mind.

Until recently, you could only go by what someone who had personal experience could tell you. There was a reasonable amount of skepticism that yoga could actually be as beneficial to your mental and physical health as its proponents claimed.

However, in the last few years, scientific study, observation, and measurement have proven that yoga can indeed have specific observable affects on your health. It has been shown that body, mind, and spirit do work together and when the effective level of each is raised, the person experiences a much better life in terms of health, happiness, and harmony within himself or herself and with the world in general.

An article published by Johns Hopkins states:

"Over 75 scientific trials have been published on yoga in major medical journals. These studies have shown that yoga is a safe and effecti...more

The History of Yoga

...ght limbs of yoga as follows: the yamas (restraints), niyamas (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyani (meditation), and samadhi (absorption).

There are many branches of yoga. In Raja yoga the focus is on meditation. karma yoga states that what we experience today is a result of past actions. In Bhakti yoga the focus is on channeling emotions in a positive manner. The various branches of yoga offe...more

Tutorial: Learning Yoga

... all parts of the world are now offering yoga tutorials, sessions and exercises.

It is to be noted that the enrollees for such tutorials and classes are rising very rapidly nowadays. But because there are more people who do not have the luxury of time to spend freely on tutorials, it is imperative that yoga be offered through different venues and portal.

To cater to the numerous people who are too busy at work and only find a little time after office hours to spare for such relaxing tasks and exercise, there are a number of Web sites now that offer yoga tutorials and classes online.

online yoga sites are so helpful and have been greatly patronized and visited. That is because some people are almost always too busy at work during daytime and cannot really rush to their gyms after work hours.

Books offering personal yoga tutorials

Because learning yoga is not always learne...more

Great Yoga Information

... several minutes helping flexibility but it will not help to much in the process of losing weight. In order to lose weight you need to raise your heart rate and burn calories while eating healthy. A lot of people include yoga in their workouts as it does help to improve your overall health. In order to lose weight using yoga you will need to do a vigorous 90 minute workout at least 3 -4 times a week.

The type of yoga that will help you to shed some pounds is called vinyasa-style yoga. This is based on a series of poses call...more