Most of the different types of yoga will combine the physical, mental and spiritual elements of the body, with the ultimate goal being a renewed awareness of the body and an overall greater health and fitness level. Tantric yoga takes this process to a whole new level, by focusing on the spiritual health of the body through additional meditation and lifestyle choices. Tantric yoga can include a number of different sciences, including astrology, physics, chemistry, psychology and mathematics to bring about a greater enlightenment to enhance your everyday life.

Increased Consciousness on Many Levels

Tantric yoga will focus on consciousness at many different levels. It begins with a session of meditation to purify the mind, and will include the visualization of love and devotion being directed to a central body of light, which is your soul. The ultimate goal of tantric yoga is to renew your mind and spirit through a profound spiritual awakening that comes through these meditation sessions. It is thought to be the transferring of energy to higher levels, for maximum spiritual growth and whole body wellness.

One of the elements of tantric yoga that is extremely important is the cessation of bad habits like overeating, smoking and excessive drinking. All of these behaviors are damaging and destructive to your physical body, making it important for you to stop them as you are striving for ultimate spiritual and physical renewal.

Increased Popularity in the United States

While tantric yoga has been quite popular in eastern cultures, it has grown in popularity within the United States as well. For those that are hungry for a spiritual workout as well as a physical one, tantric yoga can offer many far-reaching benefits. In addition to many of the other physical benefits of other types of yoga, tantric yoga can increase sexual function and stamina. It has also been shown to improve the function of the prostate in many men who practice this type of yoga regularly. If you are considering a type of yoga, and are looking for more than simply your basic workout, tantric yoga might offer just what you are searching for. Not only will you receive physical and mental benefits as you would with other types of yoga, you may enjoy a spiritual awakening as well.

[tags]yoga, tantric yoga[/tags]

Neither your body, nor your mind, operate alone. The benefits of yoga are numerous, and if you’re thinking about giving yoga a try, you should know how good this type of exercise is for your mind as well as your body.

Flexibility is Everything

When most people think of the benefits of yoga, flexibility is one of the first things that probably comes to mind. This is because thoughts of this type of exercise generally include visions of strange contortions and body bending that most people would never be able to accomplish in their current physical condition.

While basic yoga moves are much easier than you might think, flexibility is indeed one of the biggest benefits of yoga, and can be felt fairly early in the program. Yoga also lubricates the joints, tendons and ligaments of the body, allowing for increased flexibility and a lower incidence of injury. If you’ve recently suffered a sports injury, or suffer from tendonitis, you’ll benefit from yoga.

Detoxing and Massage

Yoga is one of the few disciplines that will massage all of the internal organs of the body as well, keeping them healthy enough to ward off many diseases. It also helps you to become more aware of the internal workings of your own body, increasing your sense of a potential problem. Many folks who perform yoga regularly are tuned in to their bodies acutely enough that they can get into the doctor at the first sign of a problem – which is usually quickly enough for the issue to be treated successfully. This is a huge benefit of yoga for many people, leading to increased health and overall wellness.

Because yoga also increase circulation throughout the body with the various positions that are performed in a workout, another benefit of yoga is the body’s increased effectiveness of ridding itself of waste and toxins. This will help to keep the body cleansed, healthy and free of disease and illness. It will also allow nutrients to reach every part of the body for maximum health. The organs are working at peak efficiency, blood is flowing freely to every area of the body, and waste is being eliminated quickly and sufficiently. All of these benefits of yoga mean a healthier body and mind for you.

Eliminate stress

Yoga helps to eliminate the dangerous effects of stress on your body. Over time, stress damages every organ, and ages you. Yogis usually live to a ripe age, with full control of their faculties, because they’ve managed to mostly eliminate stress.

[tags]yoga, benefits, stretching, stress[/tags]

You would certainly need to go back many millennia to find out the origins of yoga, which is an ancient practice that has been practiced in India and which signifies a union, or a way of doing things. According to whatever history of yoga is available, it is believed that it was an Indian sage named Patanjali who was the first to make a complete guide on yoga.

Yoga Sutra – The Basis of Modern Yoga

According to the early history of yoga, it is a book called Yoga Sutra that was written as many as 2000 years ago that is thought to be the basis for the yoga that is being practiced today. The Yoga Sutra contained eight limbs of yoga. In fact, yoga is know to have branched off in many directions and you can find forms of yoga that delve into meditation, or on channeling emotions and there is something to suit every person’s needs and preferences.

The trouble with studying the history of yoga is that there are many periods where the thread is broken due to the very nature of recording how yoga was practiced. Because of oral transmissions pertaining to sacred texts as well as the inherent secrecy contained in early teachings, the history of yoga from ancient times is somewhat unclear. Nevertheless, there are known to have been early recordings of yoga that date back more than 5000 years.

Four Periods of Yoga History

There is no doubting the fact that the history of yoga is rich, and it has four main periods in which it has developed as well as innovated. The earliest known beginnings of yoga can be traced to the Pre-Classical Period that goes back more than 5000 years. Then is the Classical Period when yoga was systemized and was written down in ancient India about the time of the second century, and this is when the noted sage named Patanjali organized yoga practice into the “eight limbed path.”

[tags]yoga, history of yoga, Patanjali[/tags]