Isn't yoga just stretching?

How Yoga can keep us healthy

Exercise has many benefits to life such as staying healthy, feeling good, building muscle and many other aspects, however specifically yoga helps mental and physical aspects of life. Whether you’re a beginner yogi, experienced, young or old yoga will help, and one of the amazing things about yoga is that it helps each person in a different way, bettering themselves. Yoga has proven to help flexibility, improve joint movement, reduce stress levels, and lower blood pressure.

Mental Benefits of yoga

Doctors have said that yoga helps relax the mind, starting the day with yoga can help create a more relaxing optimistic mindset for the day. Additionally, on the other hand ending the day with yoga can benefit clearing the mind of stressful events from the day. This consequently results in lower stress levels, by having a consistent yoga practice breathing is improved and positive thoughts are enforced this leads to a calmer less stressful conscience. Taking just 15 minutes or a small part of the day to meditate or practice yoga is beneficial just to be able to take time for yourself.

Physical Benefits

There are both small and large benefits of yoga, however the benefits that may seem small actually impact and help the larger advantages. For example, due to the constant movement and stretching in yoga, flexibility will naturally increase, even if you believe you are not “naturally” flexible. Growth in flexibility will consequently assist our joints and make movement easier. Easier movement can help arthritis, help with previous injury, and help prevent future injury. In addition to flexibility yoga helps breathing, this can help those with asthma, COPD, or possibly recovering from COVID.

While there are many other benefits that yoga provides such as strength, confidence, stability and more, it is important to note that yoga provides an amazing opportunity to both focus on yourself and mental health as well as one's physical well being.

https://osteopathic.org/what-is-osteopathic-medicine/benefits-of-yoga/#:~:text=Yoga's%20incorporation%20of%20meditation%20and,sharpens%20concentration%2C%E2%80%9D%20says%20Dr.