Yoga, an ancient practice and meditation, has become increasingly popular in today's busy society. For many people, yoga provides a retreat from their chaotic and busy lives. This is true whether you're practising downward facing dog posture on a mat in your bedroom, in an ashram in India or even elsewhere in a forest. Yoga provides many other mental and physical benefits. 

Yoga is not a religion; it is a way of living that aims towards 'a healthy mind in a healthy body'. Yoga helps promote a balanced development of all the three, physical, mental and spiritual beings of a man. Other forms of physical exercises, like aerobics, assure only physical well-being. They have little to do with the development of the spiritual or astral body, unlike yoga.

An individual who practises yoga every day has the following benefits.

Yoga asanas build strength, flexibility and confidence. Regular practice of yoga can help lose weight, relieve stress, improve immunity and maintain a healthier lifestyle. The art of practising yoga helps in controlling an individual's mind, body and soul. It brings together physical and mental disciplines to achieve a peaceful body and mind; it helps manage stress and anxiety and keeps you relaxing. 

Mindfulness refers to focusing your attention on what you are experiencing in the present moment without judging yourself. Practising yoga has been shown to increase mindfulness not just in class, but in other areas of a person's life.

Yoga is said to have a positive effect on cardiovascular risk factors: It helped lower blood pressure in people who have hypertension. It's likely that the yoga restores "baroreceptor sensitivity." This helps the body sense imbalances in blood pressure and maintain balance.

Yoga with all the above benefits has a lot of impact on the overall functioning of the body giving you a feeling of self-attainment and a better understanding of one's mind and soul. Let's take a pledge to practise yoga to lead a healthier life towards self-attainment.