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Using yoga to improve our physical and mental health is a technique that has been in use by Yogis in India for thousands of years. Just because its roots lie so far in the past does not belittle how it can benefit us in our modern society. Now, more than ever, in our fast-paced workaholic culture, yoga can be put to good use, relieving stress and bringing balance to our minds and bodies, even improving the state of our nervous system. It teaches the student about the fundamental principles of true health, and through replacing stress and negative energy with a sense of peace and calm, it also allows us to use our energy more where it’s needed, both physically and mentally.

What we have to ask ourselves today is, does the Western world really need yoga? And it is deserving of the importance and significance the East has always placed on it? We must keep in mind that our world today is full of anxiety and restlessness. Do we really live each day to our full satisfaction or are we simply scraping through? While our life expectancy continues to increase, this is due far more to the advances in medical science than to any innate ability of our own to resist disease. One million weeks of work time is lost every year due solely to nervous disorders.

Yoga’s ability to thoroughly improve the state of our nervous system is something for which we are obviously in need. Left to their own devices in today’s society our nerves have a serious negative impact on the physical condition and mental attitude of our country. No one suggests yoga in order to teach us Indian rope tricks or anything as nonsensical as that, nor is it able to give us an indefinite prolongation of our lifespan. What it does do is built up the abilities already dormant in us, physically, mentally, and spiritually, to the fullest possible extent.

The lifespan of the majority of people is hereditary. It gets calculated through our genes passed to us by our parents and grandparents, but most of us aren’t actually getting all the years we could, instead passing away well in advance of our biological life-span’s termination. Yoga can help you live to the full extent of your genetic ability.

Rather than building physical strength, yoga builds endurance. It preaches moderation in terms of what we eat, how much alcohol we consume, and particularly in our tabacco intake. But most importantly it reaches for a happy and balanced frame of mind. Statistically, the happier you are the longer you tend to live. As long as you maintain blood flow to the brain and take the correct precautions, there is no reason for our minds to get old.

While this is common knowledge among doctors, most of us do very little to ensure plenty of blood flow to our brains. When man’s evolutionary predecessors still walked on his hands like an ape, his head would actually have hung down lower than his heart, allowing gravity to aid the proper flow of blood to his brain, keeping it healthy and responsive with ease. With our modern method of walking, we have to develop other ways to make sure that our brain is getting the blood it needs, and Yoga’s exercises and rules are a great method to keep our brain well supplied.