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March 29, 2019 4 min read
From Miami to Mumbai, yoga is practiced differently around the world. Still, anyone who engages in the ancient practice will agree: yoga cleanses the mind and body.
Whether it's a few minutes of yin or an hour of hot vinyasa, a daily yoga practice amplifies these cleansing benefits to build a resilient sense of self. Here’s how that strong foundation clears toxic energy, wards off negativity, and creates more space for positivity and love.
One of the most significant benefits of a daily yoga practice is that it builds confidence both on and off the mat. From nailing a new arm balance in class to manifesting a career goal in meditation, yoga provides endless opportunities to succeed.
However, yoga doesn't build confidence because it is instantly easy for everyone. Instead, yoga boosts confidence because it teaches us the power of baby steps. It shows that we can achieve so much more than we ever expected when we dedicate ourselves to a healthy daily habit.
Yoga instructor Dana Falsetti explains how practicing yoga helped her confront her inner struggles and cleanse the negativity she’d been harboring all her life. In turn, this enabled Dana to build self-respect and discover true confidence for the first time in her life.
“Yoga allowed me to experience my body in a whole new way, to see that with practice, patience and dedication, so much is possible — more than most of us ever imagine. My practice allowed me to see my body, my relationships, the world, through a different lens.”
While yoga can be a very intimate practice, it also has the power to connect us to others. In fact, many yogis are surprised when their daily yoga practice changes their perspective on humanity and the world beyond.
So how exactly does yoga teach us to see other people differently?
Spiritual master Don Miguel Ruiz outlines the power of new perspective in The Four Agreements. His second agreement, don’t take things personally, shows how a strong sense of self is mirrored by a strong understanding of other people.
“When we really see people as they are without taking it personally, we can never be hurt by what they say or do.”
Yoga is the basis for creating a strong, well-defined sense of self. It also grows empathy and grace towards others, which helps us understand that each human experience is separate and unique from our own. And when we can move through the world unaffected by the negativity of others, we become invincible.
One reason why yoga feels so good is that it helps melt away stress and anxiety. Yoga's ability to melt stress and anxiety isn’t just something teachers tout in class — it’s a fact proven by science.
According to Edi Pasalis at the Kripalu Center for Health and Wellness, yogic breathing has the ability to enhance positivity in two key ways. For one, yoga can boost your vagal tone (controlled by the vagus nerve) in the parasympathetic nervous system. Boosting your vagal tone increases one’s ability to unwind from stress healthily. Increased heart rate variability (HRV), the variation in time between each heartbeat, is another benefit of mindful breathing and yoga.
“People who have a high HRV may have greater cardiovascular fitness and be more resilient to stress,” explains Dr. Marcelo Campos, a primary care doctor at Harvard Vanguard.
Taking time to slow down and tune into your needs reduces the toxic effects of stress on the mind and body. And when you’re consistently engaging with yogic practices like asanas, mudras or meditation, the long-term benefits of these resiliency-boosting, stress-reducing exercises are amplified.
Have you ever noticed that when you’re in a bad mood, things continue to go wrong? This is in part because you’re focusing on the negative things while ignoring the positive.
But it’s also because we attract what we are.
Negativity attracts negativity; positivity attracts positivity. No one expects you to feel like a ray of sunshine every single day — that isn’t realistic. Instead, yoga provides a safe space for working through all the mental blockages, deep-rooted traumas and toxic ideas that bombard us both internally and externally.
As Dr. Judith Orloff puts it, “Consistently chipping away at the negative makes room for more positivity in yourself.”
Practising yoga and meditation daily can cleanse ourselves of toxic energies and shift our daily mood towards a more enlightened state that radiates and attracts positivity.
Would you like to learn more about how to deepen your own yoga practice while also gaining the skills and certification necessary to share safely with others?
If you’re ready to dive headfirst into the world of yoga, we recommend you check out our comprehensive set of In Person and Online Yoga Teacher Trainings. We’ve even made a few lessons of our curriculum available online for free so you can get a sense of what the training is all about.
Got any questions? Call: us Toll Free 1-833-LUV-YOGA (1-833-588-9642) OR email us at info@fullcircleyogaschool.com
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