Yoga is an ancient technology that combines physical postures, rhythmic breathing, and meditative exercise to offer you a unique holistic mind-body experience.
According to a Harvard article and a PubMed study, when you do yoga your brain cells develop new connections, and changes occur in brain structure as well as function.
Yoga is an ancient technology that combines physical postures, rhythmic breathing, and meditative exercise to offer you a unique holistic mind-body experience.
A majority of the studies highlight changes in hippocampal volume following yoga practice. The hippocampus is known to be critically involved in learning and memory processes, also,
studies using MRI scans and other brain imaging technology have shown that people who regularly did yoga had a thicker cerebral cortex (the area of the brain responsible for information processing)
Exercise can naturally boost your mood by lowering levels of stress hormones, increasing the production of endorphins (Happiness chemicals), and bringing more oxygenated blood to your brain. But yoga may have additional benefits. It can affect mood by elevating levels of a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is associated with better mood and decreased anxiety.
Meditation also reduces activity in the limbic system—the part of the brain dedicated to emotions. As your emotional reactivity diminishes, you have a more tempered response when faced with stressful situations.
There is evidence that yoga lower sympathetic activation (the part of your nervous system in charge of the stress response), and a shift in autonomic nervous system balance from primarily sympathetic to parasympathetic (the part of your nervous system in charge of the relaxation response)
True that the purpose of yoga goes beyond all these mental and physical benefits, never the less is an amazing tool to at least have a more balanced lifestyle.
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