Yoga Asana

Benefits of Asana
Student’s Name
Institution
Asana Yoga
The word “Asana” is a Sanskrit terminology used for particular physical posture. Asana expresses a specific position that is more comfortable and relaxed. The person holding such position must stay for a longer period to connect with the inner self. In the second century even before Jesus Christ came, Yoga already existed, and this can be confirmed from Patanjali’s writings “Yoga Sutras” on the principles of Yoga Practice (Bryant, 2015). Patanjali named “Asana” the meditation posture and “Yoga Vyayam,” a physical posture. However, in the current day, Asana refers to the universal and dynamic Yoga. Asana postures were derived from positions and natural movements of various animals. This explains why most of Asana postures are named after animal names such as tiger, cat, deer, and hare, among others. The Asana postures use the complexities of nature to learn how to help oneself. Similarly, to the animals, the positions movements had specific benefits. The different types of Asana bearing animal names have particular advantages to the body. The supreme types of asana include Bhujangasana, Marjari, Shashankasana, Padmasana, and Shirsana.
General Benefits of Asana
This type of body movement is beneficial for the nervous, cardiovascular and lymphatic systems, as well as the joints and muscles. Asana is also helpful for the mind; energy centers (Chakras) and psyche. Asana is psychosomatic exercises that give balance to the nervous system, strengthens, harmonize and stabilizes the states of mind of the practitioner.

Some of the impacts that asana brings to the practitioner include clarity of thought, contentment, feeling of peace and freedom and relaxation. In exercises, there is a system known as “Yoga in Daily Life,” and its design ensures for systematic and gradual preparation of the body. The methods include the more straightforward preparatory exercises that gradually graduate to the more advanced activities and then asana considered the more difficult. Asana Yoga classes have a period of relaxation which includes at the beginning, in-between and the end of each session. Ability to relax gives the individual an opportunity to feel own body. In asana, the physical and mental relaxation is fundamental for perfect performance during the exercises. The impact of asana unfolds during the relaxation period.
Asana enhances the breathing system of the practitioner. Coordinating movement and breath makes the exercise harmonious. The breathing process stimulates metabolism and body’s circulation. The use of inspiration in asana promotes relaxation of the muscles as helps the person exercising to concentrate on the tense areas of the bod. The tight areas then undergo relaxation through exhalation. Some people have shallow breathing, whereby less air fills the lungs. Asana Yoga has a program known as full yoga breath that aids in correcting breathing (Rose & Thomas, 2010). Optimum metabolism of the body requires complete breathing process. The yoga exercises make full breathing the natural way that an individual breathes. Therefore, Full Yoga Breath results to deeper breaths that help in improving the circulation, physical condition and nerve performance of a person.
Asana also helps to cultivate awareness. This purpose was utilized in the old Indian civilization. In India, archeologists have come across 5,000-year-old carving in the Indus River valley. The carving illustrates a cross-legged symbol whose sitting position known as Yogis. The posture is still used today for meditation. In India’s tradition, asana came about when their “seer” (known as rishi) took the position when meditating. However, the Yoga Sutra written by Patanjali did not discuss the posture or give instructions on how to perform asana. In pre-modern India, texts still provide less description of the poses. However, from Yoga Sutra, Patanjali teaches of the primary value of asana. Asana value in the context of India practice is to prepare the body to adapt to long hours of meditation. Asana prepares the body by building stronger legs and back.
In the Western Culture, yoga asana is accepted but not in the context of the teachings of Patanjali. The west uses asana for therapeutic purposes. There is the treatment of physical injuries (Cowen & Adams, 2005). Asana is also used generally as a form of fitness exercise in the gyms. Media advertise the yoga asana moves and postures on health journals to help with home fitness exercises. Aside from the health benefits, the Westerners practice asana as a spiritual practice. However, the spiritual practice differs from the ancient ones such as ashrams and other retreats that happened in ancient India. The Westerners appreciate the values that asana bring to an individual including strength, healing, and flexibility. In addition, they also like it because the practice creates a powerful nonverbal communication of the sacred. The exercise fulfills the human being’s desire to connect with the mystical side of them. People pursue existence beyond themselves, and asana yoga accomplishes that willingness from them to communicate with something unseen and sacred.
Asana yoga brings people’s mind to the present. When an individual practices asana, he or she has to be there in the present. The person must observe their reactions, sensations, and sense of ease of difficulty as they stretch. This creates the basis for meditation. People rarely exist in the present. Our minds are usually thinking of the future or the past. People do not live in reality; instead, they live in their thoughts. Therefore, even though people have the present to live, they do not, because they had thought about in the past and are presently thinking about the future. The challenge is that people keep being disappointed about their lives because they do not live it. Asana yoga is the remedy that reconnects the being to the sacred. During the meditation process, people can appreciate the miracle of living in the present.
Next, apart from the emotional bit, asana also provides steadiness and ease. The practitioner must practice well to manage to stay still for a while, which requires robust exercise. The steadiness of the body gives the practitioner the background to observe the movement of one’s mind. Therefore, when a person is still, they easily connect with the more in-depth meditation. Yoga asana provides a practitioner the possibility to dis-identify himself or herself. Dis-identification is terminology in Yoga Sutra that explains it is the process when a person mistakenly identifies oneself with the thoughts. Such false identification provides misery to the people, and asana yoga practices dissolve the deceit. Asana Yoga removes the deceit by helping a person separate oneself from the thoughts. Deep meditation separates thoughts as a surface phenomenon, creating the space between oneself and the ideas. Asana Yoga makes the practitioner feel the space between the thoughts and consciousness. At that point, an individual is given the power to release the feeling or act from it. Space defines the freedom the practitioner enjoys which people do not have since they have to live in their thoughts.
Patanjali mentioned in Yoga Sutra that for someone to be in an asana position, one must respect the sukha. The sukha means comfort and ease. However, in practice, people move into asana positions with challenges such as weakness, tightness, and mental resistance. People are rarely at ease. The ease in this context is the interpretation of how difficult the pose might be by the person supposed to perform it. It is normal for the challenge of posing to be difficult at first. However, an individual can be at ease by having a positive attitude to challenge oneself. However, asana only helps in making someone easy even in difficulties, but it will not help avoid problems.
Physical Benefits
Asana also helps in safe stretching of muscles. During the stretch, lactic acid is released. Lactic acid is responsible for fatigue, stiffness, pain, and tension of muscles. Asana also enhances the range to which joints can move, through the improvement of joint lubrication. The outcomes of the practice are ease in every part of the body (Cowen & Adams, 2005). Apart from the muscles, asana yoga stretches the soft tissues such as tendons, ligaments and the fascia sheath. Therefore, Asana Yoga provides compelling benefit to the health of an individual. This is because asana acts as a single unit that aids in enhancing flexibility, balance, and strength. It also assists in weight loss, helps the body lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and improves immunity. Lastly, the exercises strengthen the bones of the practitioner, reduce susceptibility to injuries and enhance an individual’s psychological health.
Types of Asana Yoga and Benefits
There are different types of asana practice. They include Marjari commonly known as “The Cat.” The exercise is responsible for stretching the spine and the body. Second, Bhujangasana also known as “The Cobra” helps in releasing emotions and aggression. Shashankasana aids n relaxation. The common and superior types of asana are Shirshana known as “Headstand” and Padmasana also known as “Lotus.”
First, the Shirsana, which a headstand poses, is an advanced pose that requires experience for a person to gain the strength, stamina, focus, and mobility. When performing Headstand, the practitioners improve the toning of the spine, neck, shoulders and enhance their flexibility. A person must acquire stronger core to complete the pose correctly. Secondly, once the headstand position is achieved, the practitioner can the improve relaxation and focus. When a person is upside down, his/her pituitary gland gets stimulated. Therefore, the headstand poses to aid in solving digestive problems because stimulation of pituitary glands helps in digestion. The pose can be helpful to those suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. The upside posture also aids in improving blood flow to the brain and face. This is the reason that those practicing asana use headstand to calm their mind. It also helps relieve skin problems in the face due to an adequate supply of blood.
On the contrary, the headstand posture also has some negative impacts. For example, it can cause injury to the neck and back when performed wrongly. Headstand can as well lead to accidental twisting of the neck, tear arterial linings that can cause worst effects such as strokes and blood clots. Therefore, asana yoga practitioners ought not to rush to start performing a headstand.
The second type of asana yoga is Padmasana. Veterans usually practice the posture, as it helps to give the ultimate meditative status of mind. Successful exercises of Padmasana provide the people with executing its ease. Some of the other benefits that come with this posture include relaxation of muscular tension; leveling of blood pressure levels; calmness of the mind; stimulation of the digestive system; and ease of menstrual discomfort for women (Chandwani, 2010).
The third type of asana is Shashankasana. Yoga practitioners refer to the pose as hare pose or pose of the moon. The posture is associated with the moon that has calm and peaceful characteristics that soothes the viewers. The pose also gives similar attributes to the person performing it. It is also called hare pose because the animal usually adopts the posture too.. Shashankasana helps in stretching the back muscles. It extends the back muscles by releasing pressure from the discs after separating particular vertebrae. The pose corrects the problem when discs squeeze nerve connection from the spinal cord that results in a backache. The pose removes the pain by moving the discs to the right position. Shashankasana also helps in toning the pelvic muscles. The service is more beneficial to women with the underdeveloped pelvis. It is responsible for other functions including regulating adrenal glands functions; relieving constipation; relieve disorder in reproductive organs of men and women; and eliminates anger as well.
Lastly, Bhujangasana that is also known as Cobra pose is another type of asana pose. It has a physical impact on the frontal and posterior sides of the people performing them. The pose has various benefits to the practitioner. Performing the cobra pose helps reduce anxiety and stress. As the person performing the pose raises the shoulder up as well as the back, it helps in opening the heart to reduce stress. Secondly, the exercise help eases asthma. When it opens the chest cavity of the practitioner, the position will aid in opening the space for the expansion of the lungs. When the lungs expand, the process helps to dissipate asthma and other allergic symptoms. Thirdly, the posture also improves the digestion system of the practitioner. The pose performs this function because it helps enhance the functioning of the abdominal organs. Cobra pose also enhances a person’s flexibility and strength. It strengthens the thighs, arms, spine, shoulders, and gluteal muscles. People attending gym sessions use Cobra pose for stretching purposes because it also helps tone the gluteal muscles. Lastly, the most important value that Cobra pose adds is to reduce the neck and back pain. Back and neck pain is common for people who usually it hunched over their desks or steering wheel for the most part of the day. Cobra stretch helps to relieve the tightness of the neck, chest, and shoulders.
Conclusion
The people performing asana yoga should learn to be comfortable. Some of the poses such as headstand are difficult and require sometimes performing. However, the most important value that asana adds to the practitioner is the emotional balance. Meditation allows an individual live in the moment and not in the thoughts. Living in the future or the past sometimes come with sorrows and struggles on what someone can do to correct past mistake and have a future solution. Therefore, asana has many beneficial effects on the emotional, physical, and mental health of the practitioners.
References
Bryant, E. F. (2015). The yoga sutras of Patanjali: A new edition, translation, and commentary.
North Point Press.Chandwani, K. D., Thornton, B., Perkins, G. H., Arun, B., Raghuram, N. V., Nagendra, H. R., …
& Cohen, L. (2010). Yoga improves quality of life and benefit finding in women undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer. Journal of the Society for Integrative Oncology, 8(2).Cowen, V. S., & Adams, T. B. (2005). Physical and perceptual benefits of yoga asana practice:
results of a pilot study. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 9(3), 211-219.
Ross, A., & Thomas, S. (2010). The health benefits of yoga and exercise: a review of comparison
studies. The journal of alternative and complementary medicine, 16(1), 3-12.