Inner Peace – Balance – Stress Management – Confidence
What do all these things have in common? First, they are all things we need to work on improving in our busy American lifestyles. Improving at these areas has for some time been recommended by health professionals as a technique to increase our quality of living, reduce the danger of injury or illness, and even to live longer!
Second, these are all benefits of working out with yoga – something you can easily do with a yoga fitness DVD at home! Practicing hatha yoga – the physical yoga postures or “asanas” that many folks associate with yoga exercise – is a good way to add muscle, increase the range of motion in our joints, and make a break for calm, balance and relaxation in our daily schedules. Now before you get twitchy that I’m going to go all “transcendental” on you, don’t worry! Though yoga historically does include a huge quantity of religious, meditative and holistic practices, you can get many of the benefits of a yoga way of living by just incorporating a little yoga fitness workout routine into your weekly schedule. Whether you can do 60-minutes 3x per week, or squeeze in some Sun Salutations for fifteen mins each morning – even a moderate increase in your activity level thru the incorporation of yoga practices can help.
One of the most important objections many have about working out with yoga is over the fear that they don’t have time for exercise. Working out at home with a yoga fitness DVD can be a great response to the problem.
I know your schedule already feels jammed and you’re worried you will not have time for yoga. As a full-time-mom ( all folks are fulltime to my mind – you never stop panicking about your children ) and a business-owner, I find that there are never enough hours in the day to do everything I want to. However, it is necessary to prioritize your well-being and make time for replenishing your body and spirit on a periodic basis. Exercise is a great way to do that. When you work out at home with a yoga fitness DVD, you can squeeze in your exercise when you have time. Before dawn when the house is quiet, when the children are napping or the family’s watching TV downstairs, or even as a family activity that encourages everyone in the household to be active and share time together.
Another concern that many people have about yoga exercise is that it should be expensive. Yoga has actually enjoyed a period of “coolness” lately and with yoga classes sprouting up all over the country at select gymnasiums and lofts, it is simple to see how yoga has gotten the name for being costly. However, remember that yoga was developed by ascetics in some of the most impoverished areas of the world. You have more than they do re material possessions – if they can do it, you can do. Although you do not “need” anything to practice yoga, and you can even learn it for free with some workout videos from the library or picture books that show you step by step what to do, I like to recommend that you commence with two essentials: A yoga mat to improve your comfort and safety while doing the poses, and a good instructional yoga video to guide you through a workout or 2 that you can follow and enjoy repeatedly.
For the price of a class or 2 at the local yoga studio, you can get everything you want to workout at home.
I encourage you to look into yoga exercise as a total body workout, or a supplement to your pre-existing health practices.