Yoga Day 2023: How yoga and meditation can transform your wellbeing

Yoga Day 2023: Yoga is a universal practice, a way of life, that connects people across physical and cultural borders. Yoga embodies the union of body, mind, and spirit and helps us cultivate peace and balance in everything we do. The practice of doing yoga may be more than 5,000 years old, but it remains just as relevant today for its wide-ranging benefits for the body, mind, and spirit. According to the NIH, volumes of research suggest that yoga relieves stress and anxiety, improves sleep, strengthens the mind and body, and promotes healthy habits and overall wellbeing. 

On International Yoga Day, why not empower your wellbeing journey by embracing these practices? Here are a few of the many ways suggested by Prakriti Poddar, Global Head, Mental Health & Wellbeing, RoundGlass Living app on how yoga and meditation can help you live with greater health and joy: 

1. Stress and Pain Management: These two pressing health challenges can drastically deplete our wellbeing reserves. Incredibly, yoga and meditation can help manage pain by changing our perception of it. Chronic pain and stress form a downward cycle. When we experience pain, it causes fear and stress, which can further intensify the pain. Yoga and meditation help break this loop by changing our emotional reaction to pain, so it actually hurts less. 

Yoga is also a well-known, research-backed stress reliever. Not only does it melt knots of physical tension, but it also strengthens stress-busting psychosocial resources like mindfulness, spiritual wellbeing, and interoceptive awareness (being conscious of the body’s internal states and sensations). Practicing yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which switches on the body’s relaxation response, taking you out of stressful “fight or flight” mode. 

Doing yoga asanas (poses) also improves the body’s flexibility and mobility, leading to better outcomes in conditions such as arthritis and back pain. ALSO READ: Yoga Day 2023: Wishes, Theme, Quotes, SMS, HD Images, Facebook and WhatsApp Status

2. Healthier heart: Yoga and meditation help decrease stress and inflammation, spelling good news for the heart. They have been shown to help lower blood pressure and heart rate leading to improved cardiac health. 

3. Better sleep: Certain styles of yoga are incredibly sleep-inducing — and you can practice them right in bed. Yoga nidra (yogic sleep) and shavasana (corpse pose) can induce deep states of relaxation and help you sleep better. As you intentionally relax each part of your body, you enter a state of deep relaxation and bliss — somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. Your sympathetic nervous system calms down, and the body releases melatonin, the sleep hormone, making it easy to get a solid night’s rest. 

4. Sharper focus & better performance at work: Meditation is a high performer’s secret weapon. Studies indicate that it can improve concentration and reduce mind-wandering and overthinking. It actually has the power to reshape the brain by increasing grey matter in the prefrontal cortex, the region associated with executive functions like decision-making, focus, judgement, behaviour, planning, and self-discipline. It also helps people set and achieve goals. Athletes have long been using the power of visualization to win games and smash records. 

5. Better self-care: Self-care means investing in ourselves and prioritizing our wellbeing. But it’s about far more than just ourselves. If we aren’t happy and healthy, we won’t be able to perform our work or take care of the people we love. Make sure to take time out for the things that help you relax, get centred, and feel joyful. Yoga and meditation can be excellent self-care tools as they address the whole YOU — mind, body, and spirit. They also cultivate self-compassion and teach you to respect and love your body.

Additionally, yoga can help us commit to healthy habits, while breaking negative habits and addictions.