Yoga or yoga is on the one hand a widespread relaxation technique and on the other hand an Indian philosophical teaching. The goal of yoga is to achieve knowledge of God or to strive to become one with God in the form of a union.
What is yoga?
The exercises in yoga mostly take a holistic approach that aims to harmonize body, mind and spirit. Yoga was originally one of the main philosophical schools of India and included a number of individual aspects such as meditations and physical exercises (asanas). Originally, the word meant something like yoke, tense or also bind and one meant with it the binding of the drives to the body around the Einswerden with God to make possible. The basics of yoga were already formulated in the so-called Yoga Sutra, and the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads also mention the term. After being practiced exclusively in India for thousands of years, yoga has made a triumphal march around the world in recent years and is now practiced in almost every country in the world. However, many people in Europe today understand the term yoga primarily as the asanas, the physical exercises. In addition, many schools of yoga with different theories and emphases have developed over this long period of time. More physical schools are summarized under the generic term Hatha Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, the development of the Indian yogi BKS-Iyengar, is a school that allows the use of aids in many asanas. Sivandana yoga sees itself as a summary of the most essential yoga systems, and the popular Kundalini yoga seeks above all to promote the awakening of the kundalini force.
Benefits and application
Whether one practices yoga as a philosophy in its own right, as meditation, or “just” for health reasons: Some basic factors apply equally to all yoginis (practitioners):
- Yoga increases physical agility and equally trains muscles, tendons and ligaments, as well as flexibility and sense of balance.
- Yoga allows you to develop a finer sense of your own body.
- Yoga improves posture by strengthening the muscles of the back.
- Some types of yoga help to better control hormonal balance and can make the female menopause more comfortable, as well as be supportive during childbirth preparation and after pregnancy.
Yoga as a medical relaxation technique
Yoga exercises, of course, do not replace a visit to the doctor for serious illnesses, but can certainly help to reduce restlessness, stress and sleep problems and favorably affect complaints such as nervousness or high blood pressure. Yoga is ideally suited to accompany or complement medical therapy and to improve the results of treatment in a gentle way. Many health insurance companies in Germany and also in other countries therefore pay subsidies to the insured when participating in yoga courses and also numerous companies today offer their employees participation in in-house yoga groups at very favorable conditions.
Yoga exercises for home and yoga schools
If you like to practice yoga regularly, you should look for a suitable yoga studio (for example, in Berlin Iyengar yoga) in your living environment. For beginners, you can also find many instructions for simpler exercises on the net. (For example, yoga exercises or Vidya yoga exercises). Therefore, only the most well-known three exercises should be briefly touched upon here. Sun salutation: The sun salutation is very good for warming up (in the morning or at the beginning of a yoga class). Ideally, it is performed while facing the rising sun. It mobilizes the joints, stretches muscles and ligaments, and activates the heart and circulation. Dog: This exercise strengthens and stretches almost all the muscles of the body. Especially the chest muscles, the legs and arms are specifically supported. Tree: Also a classic exercise, which serves to train the sense of balance. In addition, it trains the muscles in the abdomen, buttocks, legs.
